


Professor Chaos’ Soulmate

by Yais



Category: South Park
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Identity Porn, Implied Kyle Broflovski/Stan Marsh, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2020-11-23 03:21:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20885291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yais/pseuds/Yais
Summary: When it is revealed that Kenny McCormick is Chaos' soulmate, Chaos is in shock, but not as much as Mysterion.





	1. The Matchmaker

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been edited by the amazing [TrashWalrus4Sale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrashWalrus4Sale/profile).

Kenny opened his eyes, saying goodbye to his happy sleeping with a groan, once again waking up by to the annoying voices of Kyle and Stan arguing.

He got off his bed and left his room, wishing he could yell at them to shut up —because at 8 am on Sunday he felt justified to sleep in, but he couldn't because they were arguing in their home, the place in which he felt like a guest who had been overstaying their welcome.

His friends offered him one of the unused rooms in their house about four months ago, after Kenny's apartment was set on fire. In the beginning, Kenny thought he could claim the insurance money in a couple of weeks, and accepted his friends' invitation without thinking, there was no reason for leasing when he preferred to buy a new place once he had the insurance money. However, the insurance company was making everything very difficult.

Kenny knew he should have settled with something cheap when he had —as his lawyer named it— "some difficulties in his case.” Kyle practically begged him to stay with them a little more, arguing that after the traumatic event of losing his home and all his belongings, he shouldn't be alone. Also, Stan said he could pay some bills, that it would help them a lot.

Now he wished he had said "no" because his friends' arguments were making him go crazy. He needed a new place. No matter how much he loved his friends, he wasn't comfortable living with them anymore.

'What is it now?' he mentally asked himself while approaching the room where the argument was taking place. Nevertheless, he wasn't able to grasp a single word of whatever Kyle and Stan were saying because Kyle heard him approach even before he could set foot in the room.

"Kenny! Did we wake you up?"

Kenny was sure he was walking on stealth mode, but he wasn't surprised at all for having been discovered by his friend. Kyle had the ability to always know when someone was about to enter the room he was in, so there was no way to surprise him.

When Kenny got inside the kitchen, he saw Stan on his pajamas and Kyle still wearing the same clothes as yesterday, definitely at the end of his walk of shame.

"Didn't I tell you I like to get up early on Sundays? Hearing your sexy voices in the morning is just the cherry on top."

Kyle was about to let an apology out of his mouth, but Stan spoke first. "Sorry man, Kyle's just getting on my nerves."

"Me?... you are an asshole," Kyle glared Stan and left the room.

“So,” Kenny yawned. “you two are mad because you didn’t get to sleep together?”

“No! God, stop that.” Stan stormed out of the room too.

“Y'know Kenny, your friends' sexual tension isn’t funny anymore,” he mumbled to himself, thinking about whether he would have cereal or eggs for breakfast.

While Kenny was making his breakfast, he saw a small gift box resting on the kitchen table. The box was black and had a white card attached, with Kyle's name on it. Kenny didn't have to be a genius to guess that the package was the latest gift Kyle’s boyfriend gave him... And the reason why Stan was in a bad mood.

Since the beginning of time, people were meant to recognize their perfect mate when their irises shine after crossing their gazes. Once they met, soulmates were meant to be the happiest together. That's why many people thought that the only romantic relationships that should exist should be between soulmates.

However, some believed anyone could be happy with whomever they chose, even if it wasn't their soulmate. Kyle was one of those, and that was why he had been dating a guy who wasn't his soulmate for six months. Stan didn’t approve of that relationship.

Usually, Stan was tolerant and didn't meddle in other people's business, but this was Kyle, and, apparently, he thought of his friend as some extension of himself. Stan used to follow Kyle around, telling him that he shouldn’t get attached to anyone, let alone, have a boyfriend. They would yell and fight for hours and the next day, they would laugh as if nothing happened.

Kenny sat on the living room couch and turned on the TV. He was sure Stan was really in love with Kyle, but he was never going to realize it because his eyes didn't shine when he saw Kyle for the first time.

  
  
When Kenny finished his breakfast and was about to turn off the television, because he couldn’t stand watching the newest smartwatch commercial again, his intercom started buzzing.

“What?” said once he made sure he was completely alone.

“Hi Mysterion, it’s Tupperware. I’m calling everyone for an urgent meeting at the base in two hours.”

Kenny wanted to groan because he hated morning meetings, especially on Sundays, but he ended up saying “OK, I’ll see you there”.

“See you.”

A few seconds later, when Kyle and Stan left their rooms, Kenny asked them where they were going. Of course, he knew his friends received the same call as him and were heading to the base, but was curious to learn what excuse they would say.

Stan muttered some incomprehensible answer while Kyle elbowed him and told Kenny his mother wanted them to help her to move some boxes. When Kenny, grinning, offered his help it was Stan’s turn to hit Kyle.

"Don't worry dude, we got this." Stan took Kyle's hand, and they both fled out of the house before Kenny could say anything else.

As soon as they left, Kenny got up off the couch and stretched. He didn't feel any grudge against his friends for hiding they were superheroes who had been recently summoned to an urgent meeting. Because he was a superhero too and was also hiding his true identity.

  
  


Kenny had trust issues when it came to his superhero activities, so, when he decided to join Freedom Pals, he couldn't resist the urge to investigate everything about all the members of the group. After following Toolshed a few weeks, it was easy for him to discover his true identity was Stan Marsh, but Human Kite wasn't that easy. He had to befriend Stan first to be able to find out anything about Kyle.

Sadly, when he decided he could trust them, he wasn't able to tell them anything about his secret identity. Kenny had kept the secret for so long, he didn't even know how to tell anyone the truth. Besides, he was afraid of his friends' reaction when they discovered that at first, he just pretended to like them.

Two hours later Kenny let out a long sigh. He was sitting in his usual spot in the base's meeting room, waiting for Tupperware to arrive.

All the superheroes he knew were there, even the ones that lived outside the city were summoned. Whatever was happening it was huge and everyone was nervous. Or, almost all were nervous because Stan and Kyle, who were sitting across him, were still arguing. Even in their superhero outfits they were unable to stop being themselves.

“Sup, Mysterion” The Coon sat at his side and blocked his sight waving a hand at the height of his eyes. “Do you know what Tupperware wants?”

“No.”

“Weren't you supposed to know everything?”

“That’s Doctor Timothy.”

“Sure, sure...” The Coon started to play with his claws.

Kenny rolled his eyes. The Coon was the superhero he hated the most. Everyone knew he was only on the business for the fame and the money his YouTube videos and merchandise gave him. Nevertheless, the public loved him, unlike Mysterion, The Coon was approachable and always had time for the fans.

Kenny didn't trust him and since the rumor of The Coon dating a villain began to circle, his confidence in him diminished even more.

"Have you seen the new smartwatch's commercials?" The Coon didn't wait for his answer. "I'm at the top of the pre-order list. My girl is gonna be the first one to wear that shit."

"Your girl? Didn't Heidi say she was more into jewelry than tech?"

The Coon smiled, silently mocking Kenny. Calamity Heidi robbed a jewelry store two months ago, under Mysterion's nose. "Heidi's… hot, but, unfortunately for her, we aren't a thing. So, keep guessing."

Suddenly, the main door of the room opened and Tupperware arrived. "An apology to everyone, something happened while I was on my way."

After that, he started telling them why he called the meeting.

  
  
Apparently, a very trustworthy source told him that Professor Chaos, the most dangerous supervillain of their time, was planning on stealing a secret government experiment called The matchmaker, the only machine in the world that could analyze the eyes of any subject and find their soulmate by running a complex algorithm.

  
After Tupperware said that, The Coon and, surprisingly, Human Kite started to laugh. "What's so funny?" Tupperware frowned.

"You said the matchmaker Tupp. That's a fucking myth." The Coon answered still laughing and started to point vaguely to the rest of the guys in the room. "You can't seriously think we are gonna believe that the machine exists."

"Well, yes, I believe it and if you shut up and listen to me, I'll tell you what I know so far."

Tupperware explained to them that the matchmaker was secured in one of the secret bunkers the government had and Chaos wanted it.

Why? Because, in order to run the algorithm, the machine had to get the private information of any citizen without their consent, including citizens from other countries.

Chaos was planning to use the machine to blackmail the government, as it was clear that very few citizens would be happy to know that their private information was used without their consent.

Also, at a national security level, it didn’t matter if the machine was able to find soulmates. No government likes to know that they had been hacked.

If Chaos spread that information and showed proof, he could create a diplomatic disaster and start a war.

"Why don't they destroy it?" Human Kite interrupted Tupperware. “It's wrong that it exists and, by doing so, they would clear all evidence that the machine once existed.”

"Destroy it! Are you nuts?!" Toolshed jumped out of his seat. "If it works is the most precious invention on earth!"

"It is?"

"Of course!"

"Even if we don't take into account the great impact that the machine will have for humanity, the government has already spent a lot of money on its development to end up destroying it," Tupperware said.

"Do-does it w-w-work?" Fastpass looked at Tupperware, curious.

"Our task is only to protect it, it shouldn't matter if it works or not."

“Are you kidding me, right?” Mosquito spoke for the first time throughout the meeting.

Tupperware sighed. “It works, BUT nobody is allowed to use it. The machine has serious failures. Seven people that have used it have died.”

The meeting continued with more questions until they decided they were going to divide into teams to keep the matchmaker safe. That's how Kenny ended in the first-night shift making guard with Toolshed, Human Kite, and The Coon. They were the "lovely" quartet.

  
When they got inside the vault where the matchmaker was, Toolshed and The Coon almost ran towards the machine to admire it.

"Do you think it really kills people?" asked Stan.

"No, surely they just told that to Tupperware, to prevent us from using it." Answer The Coon without taking his eyes apart from the machine.

"We have to use it." Stan's eyes were glowing behind his protective glasses.

"You heard Tupperware, the machine is dangerous for anyone who uses it. Don’t believe The Coon." Kyle also was looking at the device, with curiosity and disdain mixed.

The matchmaker was a small square, no bigger than a shoebox, with an eye scan, a button, and a small screen.

"I'm with Toolshed, he has to use it." Said The Coon, and Kite rolled his eyes. "Anyone here met their soulmate?" The Coon continued talking.

"No" answered Stan, looking crestfallen.

"I don't need to find them." Kyle crossed his arms and turned around.

"Aaaand he's one of those, why am I not surprised?"

"One of those?" Human Kite growled.

"What about you Mysterion?" The Coon ignored Kyle.

"That's none of your business."

"Rude much. I'm guessing the answer is a no."

"And you?" Stan side glanced at The Coon.

The superhero seemed to doubt whether he should answer or not, but he ended saying "no."

Stan sighed. "I'll do anything to find my soulmate." He was about to touch the device when Kyle smacked his hand away, as a mom will do to her child when they’re doing something wrong.

"Tupperware said it's dangerous!" Kyle repeated.

Stan groaned but agreed to keep himself away from the machine, and started to plan how to build something around the device to protect it even more. It seemed The Coon wanted to protest, but he wasn't going to fight Kyle, so he just sat on the ground, and started to sharpen his claws while seeing Toolshed work.

Past midnight, Kenny was leaning on the wall, taking guard and silently looking at his team. Human Kite was begrudgingly guarding the door, and Toolshed was making sure his newly built trap against Professor Chaos was working.

Meanwhile, The Coon was practicing his aim, throwing his knives at the ceiling and near his teammates' heads, arguing that he was providing the small rush of adrenaline all of them needed to stay awake and sharp

"Knock it off!" Human Kite scolded The Coon after he sent a knife pretty close to Mysterion's head. All that time Kenny had been trying to keep his cool but that last knife made him flinch, and now he had to kick The Coon to death. Kyle must have guessed his intention and that's why he decided to intervene.

"Take it easy Kike."

"Kite!"

"Isn't immortality Mysterion's superpower?, also your healing abilities will patch him fast enough if I fail."

"You're impossible. Why does Tupperware make us work with him?" Asked Kyle, frustrated.

"Because we are the only ones who hadn't tried to kill him," answered Stan, taking a step back from the matchmaker, at last happy with his handiwork.

"Then we should fix that," Kenny suggested, using his rasp and menacing voice.

  
  
Just at that moment, the lights turned off and they heard some shots outside the vault.

"It's Chaos? Where is he?" The four of them activated some night vision googles and started to search for the villain.

"Duck!" said Human Kite when he heard the unmistakable sound of a bomb activated, and then the wall on the back exploded and debris started flying everywhere.

When Kenny was able to look up again, he saw Human Kite used his shield to protect them. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah".

"Thanks, Kite" Stan smiled at Kyle, and Kenny could have sworn he blushed a little.

"Ha! who could have imagined that getting inside of a super-secret and ultra-secure government facility would be this easy." They knew perfectly well that voice belonged to Chaos, even if they weren't able to see him yet.

Kenny stood up and took a battle stance when Chaos appeared between the dust. His crooked smile and his pose made Kenny remember the last time they fought. That time when Chaos exploded through what he thought was a random apartment to escape, but in reality, was Kenny's home. This was revenge time.

Mysterion pounced on Chaos, but the professor saw him and made a gesture to his mechanic minions to stop him. "Mysterion! It's been a while since we last saw each other."

Kenny hated when Chaos used a friendly tone while he was commanding his drones to kill him. Soon Toolshed, Human Kite and The Coon stood at his side and started to fight the drones too.

"What do you think of my drones Toolshed? They are fine pieces of engineering, aren't they?"

"They are bothersome pieces of junk."

Chaos frowned. "Here I thought you were the only one who will appreciate them. I overestimated you."

It didn't matter if Stan thought the drones were junk or not, they were kicking their asses and were making it very difficult for them to protect the matchmaker. Chaos had been able to surpass their defense and now was trying to disarm the protection Stan made before.

"I'll take care of him," said The Coon at the same time he avoided the drones protecting Chaos and gave him a kick in the stomach.

Chaos said something about The Coon having rabies and then they started to fight. Mysterion tried to shake off the drones but since The Coon wasn't helping them anymore, it was more difficult than before.

After a few minutes, when It seemed they were, at last, gaining some ground they heard a groan and a small explosion. The Coon had clung one of his claws on Stan's protection device, deactivating it.

"What did you do? You idiot!" Toolshed growled.

"I didn't mean to, your stupid di…" The Coon tried to defend himself, but his distraction allowed Chaos to electrocute him and he ended up unconscious on the ground.

Chaos started to laugh when he saw the others were in no position to stop him. "At last." However, when he took the matchmaker, Kyle blasted him to the nearest wall.

"No, you won't take it."

"Kite! Be careful! you could destroy the matchmaker!" Toolshed said, alarmed.

"Better destroyed that in the wrong hands."

Mysterion didn't say a thing, thinking they should take the matchmaker away from Chaos' hands first and then worry if it was damaged or not, but when he defeated the last drone who was stopping him and was about to run towards Chaos, he heard a buzz and a low "beep" sound that make him stop his movements.

When Chaos saw Kyle's blast, he tried to protect the matchmaker from the damage by covering it with his hands. However, due to the force he used to hold on to the device, he unintentionally pressed the activation button.

Chaos was dizzy, so he didn't understand what was happening until the machine started beeping and the eye scan of the device sent a red light to his face. "What?!"

The villain threw the matchmaker as far as he could once he understood what was happening, apparently, he also knew about the dangers of the device and was scared of it.

All the people in the room fell silent, expecting the machine to blow up because it kept beeping. Nevertheless, the machine made an even louder beep before going entirely quiet. Then the screen began to twinkle and some letters appeared on it, while the machine started to read out loud.

"Congratulations! I have found your perfect match.

Your soulmate name is Kenneth McCormick”

  
  


Mysterion froze in place, not believing what he heard and for a moment imagined that the machine was talking about other Kenneth. Someone else in the world should share his name, however, below Kenny's name, the machine started showing private information about him, like his last registered address, his physical appearance, and his last job.

If they have fallen in silence before, now it seemed like they were dead because it was impossible to hear the sound of anyone's breathing.

Kenny was looking at Chaos who couldn't take his eyes away from the matchmaker.

"Holy shit!" Stan was the first one to speak and the sound of his voice broke the spell they were trapped in.

Chaos stood up, pale and with his legs shaking.

"Mysterion, grab him!" Kyle yelled at Kenny once Chaos started to run out of the vault, but Kenny didn’t listen to him. He couldn't believe it.

Professor Chaos, the most dangerous and psychotic villain that had ever existed... was his soulmate.

His soulmate.

His destined person.

His.

Chaos.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you were wondering what I was doing instead of publishing a new chapter of [Blindfold](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17314175), well... Now you know.


	2. The Coffee Shop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kenny says he's not sad. Not at all!

Kenny didn't remember the details between the moment Professor Chaos escaped his fellow superheroes and when he ended up back in the base. The only thing he knew was that, when the government’s agents got inside the vault, he took the matchmaker and refused to let anyone take a hold of it. Arguing that as things were, they couldn't trust the device to anyone.

They were waiting for Tupperware again. The Coon was still unconscious, resting on the only armchair in the room and Kyle and Stan were whispering to each other. Kenny was sure they were talking about him. How could they not? After all, they recently found out that their roomie's soulmate was Professor Chaos.

He looked at the matchmaker still on his hands and cursed under his breath. Not in a million years would he have imagined he would discover the identity of his soulmate that way, worse yet, he never thought his soulmate would be Chaos.

His civilian life was ruined.

Kenneth McCormick was fucked.

HE was fucked.

It was basic logic. If Kenny was Chaos soulmate people would believe he was —or was going to be— involved with the villain. Even if he managed to prove he hadn't the slightest idea who Chaos was —or what he was planning— nobody was going to look at him the same way. Because if your soulmate is a crazy supervillain, YOU surely were too.

Kenny was a superhero, for fuck's sake! He couldn't be a baddie's mate. Furthermore, in what kind of world would he find Chaos attractive? Physically or intellectually. The guy was damn crazy and a shortie.

Why did the Matchmaker have to show his name? Why didn't it show the name of anyone else? Why not the name of Chaos' minion, General Destroyer or Diarrhea, or whatever the fuck his name was? He was clearly in love with Chaos.

Also, was Professor Chaos really meant to be his? The villain and he had already crossed gazes before and nothing happened. Sure, Mysterion's mask and the visor of Chaos' helmet was always between them, making it impossible for their eyes to shine; but people used to say that you should feel 'love' when you were near your soulmate, he only felt irritation when he was near Chaos.

He should have known 'destiny' was going to kick him in the nuts and make his soulmate a big "Fuck you." he was cursed after all. That was his superpower, being cursed.

Kenny wasn't vanilla, like Stan, he was open to falling in love with anyone, whether they were his soulmate or not, but, unlike Kyle, he wasn't against soulmates either. He really didn't think about it.

He wasn’t desperately looking for his soulmate, but he always assumed that if he finds them, he would date them. Or he thought he was going to, now he wasn't sure.

Mysterion shook his head. He needed to concentrate. First, he had to remove his name from the device and then convince Toolshed and Human Kite that everything was a mistake. Later he would worry if Chaos was his soulmate or not, and what he should do with that information.

Kenny pushed the button on the device, trying to exit the main screen, but only got the machine to repeat the congratulations message over and over again. He was in a nightmare and wanted to wake up.

"What are you doing, Mysterion?" Stan's voice made Kenny snap back to reality. He didn't notice when his teammates approached him.

"I'm looking through Chaos’ soulmate information. Something here could tell us anything about how… he knows Chaos. We have to interrogate him." Kenny was digging his own grave.

"There's no need to do that." Human Kite tone was deadly serious.

"Why not?" Mysterion tightened the grip on the device.

Human Kite and Toolshed looked at each other and had an entire conversation without saying a word. Usually, it was nice to see them sharing that deep connection, but now it wasn’t the time.

"We know Kenny." Said Stan.

"He's our friend." Continued Kyle. "You aren't going to find anything that links Chaos to him... besides us."

"Your friend?" Kenny was surprised to hear them admit that.

"Yeah." Stan sighed. "We don't have any idea why his name appeared on the matchmaker, but there's no way Kenny is Chaos soulmate. This should be some kind of scheme."

Mysterion doubted the whole incident was staged. Sure Chaos loved making, well, chaos —it was implied in the name—, but the villain looked genuinely surprised. Also, Kenny wasn't a greater obstacle for him than any other superhero.

Why would Chaos target him? It was too much effort. More taking into account Chaos had to figure out his true identity first.

"Look, Mysterion." Kenny's silence was worrying Kyle. "We don't know what happened, but this somehow is our fault. There's no way Kenny could get involved with someone like Chaos. He’s..."

"He is normal, and we have to protect him. Do you know how everyone will react if they find out about all of this?" Stan sounded very worried.

"What are you planning to do?" Kenny, at last, found his words.

"We aren't sure, we'll take care of that later. Now we don't want anyone else to find out this, could you keep it a secret?" Contrary to Toolshed, Human Kite's voice was oddly calm.

"I assure you that everything will be fine. We'll come up with a plan… you shouldn't worry about anything. We can take care of Kenny and Chaos."

They were vouching for him, Mysterion wanted to laugh and hug them. He thought they would think the worst, but no. Stan and Kyle were worried about him.

"...OK," Mysterion said after a few seconds in silence and extended his arms to deliver the device to his friends.

"OK?" Human Kite and Toolshed were pretty surprised to hear him surrender that easy.

“I trust you, so I’ll keep the secret."

"Oh, dude, thank you." Stan's eyes sparkled as he took the matchmaker. While Kyle looked at Mysterion like he was acting completely out of character.

"Although, I need to be sure. Do you trust him?" Kenny asked, to cover the fact he had opposed very little resistance.

Human Kite nodded his head. While Stan without a hint of doubt answered “I’d trust him with my life."

"Don't you think he could be some kind of spy? He’s Chaos soulmate after all."

"He can't be a spy and I would know if he is hiding something." Said Kyle, as if the suggestion that Kenny tricked him was an offense to his abilities.

Mysterion was so happy and moved by his friends, that he could have confessed them his true identity, but the soft groan The Coon made at the other side of the room, announcing that he could wake up at any minute, reminded them that they had to remove Kenny's name from the device before Tupperware arrive.

Kyle had a better notion about technology than Kenny, so, for him it was easy to access the administrator session. It didn't take him too long to find a way to erase his friend's name. However, when he was about to do it he hesitated.

"What's wrong?" asked Stan. "Can't you erase it?”

"Yes ... it's just that, if I delete the record, I'm going to delete all about Chaos' too, It would be erasing our only opportunity to find out who he is."

"And can't you see it first?"

"No, it's encrypted. It would take me days to decipher that information without the help of the scientist who built the machine."

"Well…" Stan started, but Kenny interrupted him. "Erase it." He said, knowing that by putting his interest above others, he was on his way to becoming evil.

Kyle gave him an impressed look and Mysterion shrugged. "Your friend's security should be a priority over finding Chaos identity. We can take him down later."

"Can you make a copy of the data?" Asked Stan.

"I can" Kite frowned. "But I doubt I can do something with it later."

"Well, It's worth a try."

After a few minutes, Kenny was a little calmer. Now there was no risk of anyone else finding out about the incident. The only ones who knew about his soulmate issue were himself, Stan, Kyle, and… Chaos.

His last thought threatened to give him a headache. Because even if his name was deleted Professor Chaos still knew about him. What would he do now? Would he dare to contact him? would he try to meet him? and, more important, Kenny wanted him to do that?

Apparently, Stan and Kyle had the same thought because, after their meeting with Tupperware ended with them leaving the matchmaker in the base, they ran to their house as fast as they could; Mysterion having to run faster.

It was early morning so Stan and Kyle didn't dare to wake him up, but they did open his bedroom door to ensure he was there and stared at him for a good couple of minutes. Like they were concerned parents, who didn't know what to do with their teenage son.

Kenny had trouble sleeping, and the next day he woke up feeling like he didn't rest for a second. When he finally dared to leave his room, thinking that his friends had already left for work, he found that Stan and Kyle were still at home, both were sitting in the dining room.

Although Stan and Kyle greeted Kenny with wide smiles and tried to act as if last night they hadn't discovered Kenny's soulmate was a supervillain, they were very bad at pretending. His unusual behavior made Kenny ask them what was happening just so they realized how bad they were addressing the matter.

The non-subtle way in which his friends tried to know all the details of Kenny’s agenda for that day and the rest of the week made McCormick want to run away, forgetting that he should be careful.

Through the night Kenny had time to decide what he was going to do. He started with the positive side of everything. That was he should feel happy now because he never had high hopes of finding his soulmate.

Then he played with the idea that the Matchmaker made a mistake and, although he would have liked to believe it and forget about anything else, he also had to accept the possibility that Chaos was really his soulmate.

At best, Chaos wasn’t interested in the soulmates’ dynamics and had no intention of looking for him, which was perfect because for Kenny, the idea of relating to Chaos beyond putting him behind bars seemed unthinkable.

While in the worst-case scenario, Chaos would be interested in meeting him. He did not want to imagine the villain asking him out, he decided to assume that, if Chaos wanted to meet him it would be to kill him, so he had to be extra careful. That meant going down the street in paranoia mode trying not to be annoyed too much when he sensed his friends were following him everywhere.

Kenny knew Stan and Kyle were keeping an eye on him to ensure his safety, not to spy on him, but after two weeks of being followed, he was getting fed up. Especially because Human Kite and Toolshed were making it very difficult for him to disguise himself as Mysterion and go out on patrol.

Sure, Kenny no longer had to endure the arguments of his friends —because Stan had decided to stop talking about how perfect a life with a soulmate would be, now, he used his time looking at Kenny with pity; While Kyle had started subtly campaigning to Kenny about discovering the advantages of a life without a soulmate,— but he would love to hear they fight again if that meant none of this happened.

He was starting to believe that none of the precautions his friends and he took were necessary. Because, after two weeks without news about Chaos, he was beginning to think the villain had no intention to look for him.

Professor Chaos just didn’t care.

If Kenny was honest, that hurt. Sure, it was a desired scenario and he didn't expect Chaos to appear before him and declare him his undying love, but, wow, realizing that his soulmate didn’t want him was harsh.

Why Professor Chaos didn’t reach out to him? Wasn’t he handsome or interesting?

Fuck that jerk.

The villain should at least state that he had no intention of meddling in Kenny's life, so Kyle and Stan would stop following him everywhere, and Kenny could return to his normal activities.

Heavens. Even when Chaos did nothing, he was still a nuisance.

That afternoon Kenny decided that while he couldn't take his frustration off by patrolling, he could go to Tweek Bros. and order some coffee with rum. He knew he shouldn't drink that stuff because he would have a stomach ache later, but he needed a shot of caffeine and alcohol.

That's how he ended up sitting at his favorite table in the coffee shop, ordering the specialty and looking at the rest of the customers. Tweek Bros. was a small place, but quite popular, so at peak hour it was always crowded.

Kenny discovered that coffee shop when he was following his fellow superheroes Wonder Tweek and Super Craig. Both were the owners of Tweek Bros. and it was a bit surprising to discover that, when they were not fighting alongside him against a villain who wanted to destroy Earth, they made a living serving hot and delicious beverages.

He had never thought about it before, but, at that moment, when he saw Craig's eyes glow as he asked Tweek ‘coffee for table three’, he discovered that he was jealous of their relationship.

He would have liked to have a soulmate like that. Someone with whom he could share everything. Not Chaos, who thought that Kenny was not attractive or interesting, and not important enough to look for him.

Again, NOT that he wanted him to do that, but… Fuck!

"Hi ... Hi, excuse me ..."

Kenny was quite concentrated feeling sorry for himself that it took him a long time to notice that someone in front of him was trying to get his attention. "Yes?"

"Em, is this seat occupied?" The newcomer pointed to the vacant chair in front of Kenny.

"No." McCormick looked up and found a blond young man about his age standing in front of him. The boy was wearing a blue jacket, he had a cup of hot coffee on his hands, and a nervous smile plastered on his face.

“Is there a problem if I sit here? It's just ... all the tables are full.” As he spoke, the newcomer's face got a bit red.

Kenny smiled back immediately and pointed to the seat in front of him. "Not at all, sit down."

"Oh, thank you." The young man put his cup on the table and, while he was sitting, looked directly into Kenny's eyes. McCormick smiled kindly and looked back at him. That was a common gesture among people who had just met and that was how most soulmates find each other.

Not that Kenny believed that the thin and slightly pale boy in front of him was Chaos, but returning the gaze was a gesture of courtesy.

As they looked at each other, Kenny noticed that the newcomer had a cute smile, his eyelashes were long, and his eyes were blue like the sky. Although his left eye was unusually lighter than the right one, that small difference in color made him look interesting rather unusual.

Even if the protocol dictated that the glances exchange should last no more than three seconds, because if they were soulmates their eyes would shine instantly, they kept looking at each other.

Not caring that their eyes didn’t shine. There was something about that young man that made Kenny hold his gaze longer than necessary. Also, the other did not seem willing to stop looking at him either.

"My name is Leopold," said the other with a soft voice, his cheeks still red.

"Kenneth, my name is Kenneth."

"Nice to meet you." After saying that Leopold looked away and by doing so, Kenny got out of the trance he was in.

“Nice to meet you too. Leopold.” Rolling the name on his tongue, out of his mouth, made him feel a pleasant sensation he had never experienced before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started to write this story just because I wanted to indulge myself, I didn't think you will like the idea this much =D. I'm so grateful for all your kudos and comments.


	3. The Hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mysterion finds out why Chaos hasn't searched Kenny.

After their introduction, Kenny tried not to look at the newcomer very intensely. This wasn't the first time he had felt an instant attraction for someone, but he had never been this mesmerized by a gaze before.

Fortunately, it seemed Leopold felt attracted to him too because he kept glancing his direction every time he took a sip of his coffee. Those few seconds the other invested in to appreciate him were like fuel to Kenny’s self-esteem that had plummeted due Chaos' indifference.

The third time Kenny caught Leopold pretending not to be checking on him, he smiled and decided to start a conversation saying he was a usual customer and had never seen Leopold in the coffee shop before.

Between smiles and shy looks, his companion told him that this was his first time in Tweeks’ Bros. His office was a couple of blocks near, but he was busy almost all the time and always used the delivery service. He was surprised to discover that such a popular place was so small. 

Kenny was grateful for the small place, though, otherwise, they wouldn't have had the opportunity to share a table and meet each other. It seemed Leopold wasn't expecting him to be so straightforward because he flustered and stuttered an incomprehensible answer after Kenny said that.

They spent the following hour talking about trivial things. Kenny had never gotten along with someone this fast. The words were leaving his mouth without filters and his companion was smiling at every one of them, making Kenny experience a nice and warm sensation in his chest.

People used to say you'll feel an instant and inexplicable connection with your soulmate once you meet them. If it wasn't because his eyes didn't shine, he would have believed he was in the presence of his mate.

Kenny wrinkled his nose unconsciously. Of course, his mind had to wander about soulmates. Before ‘the incident’ he barely thought about that, and now he was relating a slight attraction to soulmates.

Sure, Leopold had a cute smile, was his type, and, so far his personality was tolerable enough to consider the idea of asking him out. But it was obvious he was exaggerating his feelings because he was... sad ?

Well, he didn’t feel sad now. He had no reason to be. In fact, he was gonna ask for Leopold's phone number because he was having a good time. When he asked and the other agreed without hesitation, McCormick smiled and mentally told Chaos to go fuck himself.

Kenny was a catch and could hit on anyone. While the professor was only a little evil man, whose opinion wasn't important.

However, when Kenny was in the middle of writing down Leopold's number, the sound of a loud bang, followed by the cafeteria’s big shopfront shattering into a million pieces stopped him.

At the sudden sound, Kenny’s body moved on pure instinct. He jumped in front of Leopold, grabbed his hand and acted as his shield. “Are you okay?” asked at the same time he analyzed the metal ball which had broken the shop window, immediately recognizing it as one of Professor Chaos' smoke bombs.

“Uh...Yeah...” answered Leopold dumbfounded. Then he frowned, looking at the smoke bomb that caused the commotion. 

Kenny found odd the other looked more puzzled and curious at the sudden appearance of the projectile than scared, unlike the other customers who had started to run towards the emergency exit. 

Leopold had told him he was a workaholic who barely saw the streets or talked to people. So he knew about Chaos' constant attacks to the city, but probably he had never been in the middle of one before and was unaware of the danger they were in.

"Please! Be careful! Don't push!!" Behind the counter, Tweek was trying to calm the running customers while pointing to the emergency exit. Craig was nowhere to be seen, which meant Super Craig would appear soon.

"Come with me." Kenny strengthened his grip on Leopold's hand and dragged him to the main entrance.

That path was clear because they had to jump the smoke bomb to get to the door and that seemed dangerous, but Kenny knew they had enough time to get out before the bomb exploded. As opposed to trying to get out through the emergency exit where everyone was panicking.

Fortunately, Leopold didn't resist. He followed Kenny and jumped the bomb without making a comment. Of course, when they reached the street Leopold couldn't stay quiet anymore. He exclaimed a very clear "What the heck?!" That Kenny found cute compared to the curse he muttered under his breath. 

The street that a few seconds ago had people walking and living a normal day, had become into a nest of bees recently poked. People running, cars crashing, and smoke bombs spreading all over the pavement.

Kenny tugged Leopold again and ran with him to the safest place he could pinpoint. While running, they saw Chaos' robotic minions fighting against Toolshed and Human Kite and General Disarray at the top of a small building in suit armor, throwing smoke bombs everywhere.

Kenny hated the idea of leaving his partner, but he needed to change into Mysterion. So, when they reached their destination and the bombs exploded he pretended to get lost. He cringed when he heard Leopold loudly yelling for him. But he had no time to lose, he ignored him and hid in the nearest alley to suit up.

Nonetheless, when he got back, he found out that Leopold was still in the middle of the street, trying to find him in spite of the smoke, fiddling with his hands, and looking like a small kid who had lost his parents.

"Hey, you have to get out of here." Kenny said while walking towards him.

Leopold jumped, scared by the voice and took a battle stance, putting space between them. However, instead of looking menacing, Kenny thought he still looked like a lost kid.

"It's OK. I'm a good guy, I'm here to help." He continued saying, making hand gestures to assure Leopold he wasn't a threat.

The civilian hesitantly lowered his hands, but his whole body was still tense.

"I am Mysterion." Kenny knew he wasn't that popular and Leopold might not know anything about his appearance, but maybe his name rang a bell in his mind.

“I know who you are." Leopold answered with an —oddly confusing— cold tone. 

"This place isn't safe, you have to go." Kenny tried to escort Leopold, but he shook his head and took a step back, making sure he was an arm's length away from Mysterion.

When Kenny asked what was wrong, still confused and suspicious because Leopold was acting completely different than before, the other spaced-out a few seconds before covering his face with his hands. “I’m sorry… I lost someone,” said with a trembling and muffled voice. Clearly lowering his defenses down

At first, Mysterion didn't know how to react, then he patted the other on the shoulder to calm him down. Civilians react in very strange ways to dangerous situations, Leopold had the strangest reaction of all.

As an answer to his action, Leopold closed the gap between them and hugged him tightly. "I need your help," he whispered in his ear, making Kenny shiver

"It's ok, I'll help you to find them," said Mysterion. Leopold had hidden his face in his neck and was pressing his body against him. He was soft and warm, and his hair smelled nice, so Kenny couldn't help hug him back.

"Mysterion you're… what are you doing?" When Kenny took his eyes away from Leopold, he found Super Craig and Wonder Tweek were looking at him somewhat amused and confused.

Leopold tensed and Mysterion heard him murmur something he couldn’t catch.

"What’s this attack about?" Mysterion ignored the question and patted Leopold's back, not caring if Craig and Tweek found his actions odd. Sure, Mysterion wasn't usually friendly with the civilians, but he did care.

"Don’t know, Human Kite and Toolshed’s intercoms aren't working."

“Who is he? Do you need me to heal him?” Tweek made a hand gesture to conjure his healing powers.

“Are you hurt?” Mysterion frowned and softly pushed Leopold away.

For a brief moment Leopold buried his nails in Mysterion's clothes, like a cat, but eventually took a step back, and looked at Wonder Tweek as if, instead of proposing to heal him, he was threatening to hit him. “I’m fine! Don’t… I’m OK" 

“Oh” Tweek deflated, Craig frowned, and Leopold tensed again.

“It’s OK” Mysterion tried to calm Leopold by embracing him again, the civilian seemed pretty uncomfortable around the other superheroes, and Kenny had an unnatural urge to protect him. “They are good guys too. Super Craig and Wonder Tweek you have heard of them before, right?”

“Su-sure…" Leopold started fidgeting again. "I have to go, and find him...” The boy shook his head and started walking backwards, not daring to take his eyes away from the superheroes.

“Wait.” Kenny wouldn’t allow Leopold to continue wandering around that dangerous area looking for him. "Are you Leopold?"

"Yeah?" The mentioned answered before stumbling on his own feet.

"On my way here I helped a guy who was looking for you. Is he who you are looking for? His name is Kenneth."

"Yes! Yes, it’s him!"

"I took him to a safe place, you don't have to worry."

"You did?... Oh! Thank you!" Said Leopold with a small smile and he looked more like the boy he was with in the cafeteria, more confident and comfortable with his presence.

"Now I should get you safety too."

It was hard to give up on Leopold's company, when he did, Kenny felt as if a hole had been made in his chest. The reason why he felt this way was that it was unlikely that he would meet Leopold again. He didn't write down his number.

It was unbelievable that such a brief encounter had left him feeling that way and even more unbelievable that after weeks of not showing life signs, Chaos appeared now, ruining his opportunity to have a date.

Mysterion was going to make the villain pay.

Nevertheless, when Wonder Tweek, Super Craig, and Mysterion reached the place where his fellow superheroes were fighting, Mysterion found out Chaos was no were to be seen. 

Human Kyte and Toolshed explained to them that they were making a routine patrol —they were spying on Kenny— when they saw General Disarray. They still didn't know where Chaos was, nor what he was scheming.

"Give up General, you’re clearly outnumbered." Human Kite said to the very distressed villain who increased the bomb attack and tried to call for more robotic minions. He was just delaying his impending defeat.

"Hey! Why five against one? That's not a very heroic thing to do! You bullies!!" 

When Mysterion heard Chaos' voice he turned around as fast as he could and saw the professor standing across the street. Calamity Heidi and the Mexican Joker were with him.

"Professor, I'm sorry, I didn't mean this to happen." The general was pretty happy to see the backup had arrived.

"Don't worry, I know it's not your fault. They are the ones who are always inter…" Chaos was about to start a speech but Mysterion threw a piece of a recently exploded smoke bomb at him.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?!" Chaos dodged the projectile by mear luck and was outraged that Mysterion interrupted him.

Kenny didn't answer, he was pretty mad. How Chaos dared to appear before him, looking so calm after he had made him feel paranoid, miserable, and a little insecure all those days?

As an answer, Kenny pounced on Chaos and everyone started fighting.

Mysterion and Chaos generally avoided fighting against each other without a plan. Chaos was a long-distance fighter and Mysterion was a melee fighter, so under certain circumstances, they could put the other in real trouble. Also, if Wonder Tweek and Super Craig were near, Chaos always attacked them. But now Kenny had an URGE to kick the villain's ass.

Unfortunately for him, Chaos was making a great job keeping his distance and had hit him on repeated occasions.

"Oh, what's wrong Mysterion? Why are you so mad at me?" Asked Chaos after a nasty blast that knocked down Kenny.

On the ground, Mysterion pursed his lips and clenched his fists, unable to believe Chaos was beating him. He tried to calm down. His fighting style and strategy depended on him being concentrated and right now saying he was pissed would be an understatement.

"I could finish you now." Said Chaos circling him. "None of your friends are paying attention."

Kenny scoffed.

"But even if you ruined a very, VERY, important thing I was doing, you did help. So I'm just gonna beat you a little more and leave. I can't keep wasting my time with you."

Mysterion clenched his teeth. Of course, Chaos had better things to do than to be with him, or look for him... or whatever.

"What are you planning now? What were you doing? I'm not gonna let you hurt someone." Mysterion knew Professor Chaos loved monologuing, encouraging him to talk would give Kenny time to recover.

Chaos smiled and knelt beside Mysterion while clapping excitedly. "I'll tell you. Do you want to know?" He looked everywhere. "But you shouldn't tell anyone about this."

Chaos was freaking crazy. How was it possible he was his soulmate?

"I had a date today. He was gorgeous, funny and, oh, so handsome."

"A date?" Kenny felt his throat dry. "What about your soulmate!?" He didn't mean to ask, but couldn't help it. The question left his lips without permission.

"He was…" Chaos cut his words and shook his head, at the same time he murmured "stupid, don't be stupid…" Then he asked with a normal voice volume "What-what about him?"

"Why are you on a date… Why haven't you reached out to your soulmate?" OK, they were already talking about it, and he would probably never have the chance to ask ever again.

Professor Chaos paused his movements and tilted his head, confused, then he shrugged. " I can't go near him."

"You can't?"

"No, no.” The villain poked him in the chest and electrocuted him a little at every touch. “Why do you act like you don't know why?"

Kenny tried to stop him, but he was intrigued and waiting for an answer so he endured the pain.

Chaos sighed. "You are always on him, so I can't go and just say 'hi'. I can’t let you find out my secret identity, you dummy. Also..." Chaos bit his lip and Kenny found that action appealing. He wondered what Chaos looked like behind his helmet and the glasses. "I'm not interested."

Those last words, however, made him stop wondering. "Why not?" Once again, he couldn't stop his mouth.

"I don't do 'normal'," said Chaos, standing before using his powers to electrocute him a little more. "Anyway, see you Mysterion. Bye-bye."

Mysterion felt his muscles spasming and hurting due to the electroshock. A few seconds later, when he felt his muscles stop tensing, he huffed again.

Well, at least, Chaos' reason for not looking for him wasn't because he was unattractive. Chaos only thought it wasn't worth putting his secret identity at risk for his civilian soulmate. Why didn't he think about that? It was obvious that having Kyle and Stan on his tail would deter Chaos from approaching.

If he only knew Kenny was all but normal. Mysterion almost smirked but ended up frowning.

A date?

Did Chaos say a date?

His soulmate had a date with someone else.

Only a few days ago he found out about his soulmate's existence.

What the fuck was wrong with him?

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m regretting deciding to write this from Kenny’s perspective. In my mind, Butters is hella fun. For example, he was about to kill Mysterion when he was hugging him (^_−).
> 
> Thank you all for your comments and kudos, I was supposed to publish like months ago, but I have a new job and, unfortunately, I have to work to… eat ლ(¯ロ¯"ლ).


	4. The Decision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If anyone asks, Kenny is just being a hero. 

After a few minutes on the ground, humiliated, and muttering to himself about Chaos being the worst soulmate ever, Kenny realized what he just said and choked on his saliva.

Once he calmed down, he tried to shake his previous thoughts and deny they ever crossed his mind, but there was no use. His cheeks were hot from embarrassment and he could still hear Chaos' voice asking him why he was so mad at him.

Well, it was perfectly reasonable to feel mad after finding out your soulmate is dating someone else.  _ Only for the principle, not for the people involved.  _ Kenny shook his head and stood up. He didn’t want to think about that anymore.

He found the other superheroes arguing in the middle of the street. Chaos and the other villains were nowhere to be seen, so he assumed his friends had lost track of them too.

Wonder Tweek and Super Craig didn't seem happy, both were blaming Toolshed and Human Kite for everything that happened, while the other two tried to defend themselves by blaming the couple.

Craig and Tweek's mood was to be expected, after all, half of their coffee shop was wrecked. Nevertheless, Mysterion didn't want to hear them, he didn't care who was at fault. He just wanted to put Chaos behind bars, and bury this episode of his life. Maybe he wanted someone to hit him in the head too, just to make him forget the last weeks.

Mysterion intervened in the argument, and pressured Kite and Toolshed to answer why didn't they just follow the General instead of starting a battle?  _ If they had waited, they would have found out the identity of Chaos' date. A villain? Like if there was anyone better than Kenny. _

But Kyle and Stan didn’t give him the answers he was looking for, they only gave vague excuses that made Kenny even more annoyed.

“Relax, Mysterion. We'll catch Chaos and the general later.” Stan dismissed the situation, Kenny glared at him. Of course Stan wouldn't care. In fact, Kenny would bet everything he had that Stan loved this situation.

Since his friends started following him, not only the constant fights between Kyle and Stan stopped (and the time they spent together increased.) Kyle was also neglecting his boyfriend. If things remained the same, Kyle would be single in no time and Stan would be ecstatic.

"Just because you are OK being a loser, doesn't mean I'm too" answered Kenny. In other circumstances, he would have felt bad because Stan cringed a little, but not today.

When Craig and Tweek saw Kite didn't take kindly his words, they left saying they would give the incident report to Tupperware. Human Kite and Toolshed were about to leave too, fuming, when Mysterion stopped their path and ordered them to stop following Kenny around. He imagined that being able to go wherever he liked would improve his mood. Sadly, his friends told him there was no way they'll stop.

Kenny wished he could tell them Chaos had no interest in him, but he didn’t want to explain how he knew that. Even if his friends believed Chaos told him (out of nowhere) about not caring for his soulmate, they would assume Chaos was trying to trick them.

So, Kenny ended up sighing and apologizing for being rude. He was just stressed because he had agreed to keep the secret about Chaos’ soulmate, and now some people had been harmed.

He had to do something about it and relieving Stan and Kyle of their spying duties was the best move. They were sloppy because they cared too much. Also, they were terrible at spying anyways. 

"We can't trust Kenny’s safety to anyone, to you." Kyle crossed his arms, denying Mysterion’s petition. "Not until you tell us what is happening."

"About what?"

"We know Tupperware is hiding something related to the matchmaker," said Stan. “And you always have a role in his plans.”

Even if Kenny had his friends' accusing glances over him, he felt relieved because for a moment he thought they already knew his true identity. Something quite impossible given the subject they were talking about.

Instead they doubted Mysterion for all the secrets they knew he kept. Tupperware usually gave him secret and shady tasks because he knows how to do a good job, but now it wasn’t the case.

“Look, I don’t know what you are talking about, but even if I knew, my missions with Tupperware had nothing to do with you or your friend. I gave you my word, I'll help you, and that’s what I’m trying to do." 

Kyle and Stan looked at him as if they were trying to catch him lying until Stan talked again. "So, this is not something he asked you to do?"

Mysterion rolled his eyes at the same time he shook his head. "If I had said anything to him, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Your friend would be in a cell by now."

"Well, something odd is happening and involves Tupperware and the matchmaker. You can't possibly expect we believe you don't know anything." Kyle crossed his arms.

Kenny wanted to laugh. Odder than him being Chaos' soulmate? Maybe if he ignored that, he could think of something else. In fact, there was something he would have paid more attention to if he hadn't been distracted.

After the meeting, where Tupperware tasked them to take care of the matchmaker, he felt that something didn't make sense. Yes, the device was important, but Tupperware didn't need a meeting to pick a team. If the device was top secret, why involve everyone?

Kyle and Stan agreed with him and told him that they thought the same and that some other odd things had been happening. A few days ago The Coon had reunited the members of his former team to advise them not to trust Tupperware, and later that week Toolshed had found a tracker device on him. The tracker was pretty similar to those made by Tupperware.

Human Kite prevented someone from putting a tracking device on him too, and when he avoided the attack, he detected a time travel scent, so he was pretty sure the New Kid was back on the streets.

“We thought you were laying low because you were behind the trackings too.” They told Mysterion.

In the end, he didn’t get to convince Human Kite and Toolshed to stop following Kenny around, but they agreed to keep him on the loop. So things would still be complicated.

After saying goodbye to his friends, Mysterion decided to do some patrol before going back home. Hoping that it would help him to calm down. It had been a while since he felt the cold air on his face.

The thieves he found on the street surely were regretting going out that night because he hit them without restraining himself.

The routine change allowed Kenny to regain control over himself, and forget Chaos. Focusing on finding out what was happening with Tupperware and the New Kid was a better use of his time.

However, no matter how many times he was about to let "the Chaos issue" go, it seemed the villain was determined to make Kenny only think about him.

After he changed into his civilian clothes and reached his house front door, he heard a soft noise coming from the rooftop. Usually, the neighbors' cats were the source of the noises Kenny heard up there, nevertheless, today he couldn't just ignore them. Kyle’s and Stan's words had left him worried. What if someone had succeeded in putting a tracker device on them? Kenny did not want to be forced to move again because of an attack that went wrong.

Being as quiet as possible, Kenny went to the backyard and climbed the ladder he used every time he wanted to rest on the rooftop and see the stars. He could actually climb up there with a few jumps, but he didn't want his friends or neighbors to see him performing stunts.

Kenny was almost certain that he would find Mino, the neighbor's gray cat, chasing a lizard, so he got surprised when he peeked his face and, instead of seeing the flat and hairy face of the animal, he found a small spider-shaped robot ‘looking’ at him.

The robot had a cannon aimed directly at his face, ready to shoot him. It was relatively small, but Kenny was sure that if the shot didn’t kill him, it would leave him quite injured, so he jumped out of the ladder to get away. Hitting the ground would probably be painful (he didn’t assume a position to fall correctly) but jumping would put him in a safer place.

To his surprise, he had barely begun to fall, when he felt that someone caught him in the air and slowly took him to the ground. Kenny's butt barely touched the grass, instead, the rest of his body was firmly pressed against the chest of the one who caught him.

When Kenny raised his face to see who helped him, he stopped breathing and was speechless. Chaos was there. Holding him in his arms, while his cape was waving slightly due to the night wind.

Along with the realization that Chaos was there, came the feeling of soft electricity shocks caressing the parts of his body that were in contact with Chaos's. The electricity spreading across his skin was surprisingly calming, and Kenny wondered if the feeling came from the impact of the moment or if Chaos was causing it. He had never been touched by the villain unless he had the intention to hurt him.

They looked at each other. Chaos opened his mouth, but no sound came out of it.

Kenny could have stayed immersed in that sensation of electricity pleasantly stimulating his nerves if not because he heard the sound of a considerable amount of spider robots surrounding them. When he decided to look, he discovered that all the robots’ small cannons were pointing at him.

It was at that moment when Kenny remembered who he was and who Chaos was. The villain was on his rooftop, doing who knows what, along with an army of killer robots. Did he discover his secret identity?

He tried to escape from the embrace but the other held him steady at the same time he ordered the bots to disappear. The spider bots obeyed at once and Kenny didn't dare to move until the sound of their mechanical limbs faded.

"I'm sorry," Chaos said in a soft voice. "It's OK, they’re gone now." While talking, Chaos' hands slowly stopped producing electricity.

Kenny had never heard Chaos' voice without a hint of a mockery of disdain. He sounded completely different. Still dangerous, but at the same time not.

"Are you hurt?" Chaos asked, noticing he had no intention to talk.

When Kenny was able to overcome the shock, he shook his head and that action granted him the opportunity to see Chaos smile. However, he no longer allowed himself to let his guard down. What was Chaos doing there?

Kenny had been waiting for him all that time, and when he finally gave up on the hope, when he truly believed Chaos would never appear, there he was. Why was he on his roof? Was he there to see Mysterion or... Kenny?

Chaos must have seen Kenny's confused expression and got a little nervous because he looked in every direction as if Kenny was the one holding him (preventing him from running away) and not the other way around.

“I...” Chaos's fingers released an electric shock that this time, could not be classified as pleasant at all. It hurt, not as much as the ones in the afternoon though.

Kenny pushed Chaos and felt his whole weight smash the grass when he released him. Until that moment he was too surprised to believe he was in danger, but he was.

He didn't say it, but his eyes screamed “don't touch me,” and that made Chaos' confused expression transform into sadness. "Don't be scared. I'm not going to hurt you." Chaos tried to touch Kenny again, but Kenny put space between them, preventing him from doing so.

The villain pursed his lips and sighed. "I'm sorry, " he said again. "I didn't mean to… I gotta go." Chaos slowly stood up.

"Wait" Kenny's treacherous hand held on to Chaos's cape to keep him from walking away. His whole body tensed when Chaos obeyed his command.

They looked at each other. Chaos had told Mysterion he had no intention in meeting his soulmate So, what was he doing there? Maybe… If Chaos wasn't planning on attacking him, was he looking for Kenny? Kenny felt warm on his chest.

"What were you doing on my roof?" asked. At last. It was it. Chaos would tell him he was there for him. For Kenny. His soulmate.

Chaos looked at him, apparently not knowing what to say before shaking his head slightly. Then he fell on his knees and leaned towards Kenny until their noses were only inches away.

Kenny didn't move back. Later he would say he didn't move because he would never let an enemy intimidate him, but the truth was that he was in shock.

"I came to see someone pretty important." Kenny's stomach felt weird. “I was worried he may be hurt… with all the explosions and people pushing in today’s fight. I had to see if he was fine.”

“Oh”.

Chaos moved away and put his index finger on his own lips. "But it’s a secret." His flirtatious tone made Kenny feel his cheeks hot. "I'm not supposed to be here, so, you can't tell anyone you saw me. OK?"

Kenny nodded his head making Chaos unable to resist the urge to pat his head. However, he only patted him twice before realizing what he was doing. His face and neck went red before he looked to the ground, and Kenny could swear that he saw static coming out of his head.

While Chaos was distracted. Kenny realized the villain didn't know about him being Mysterion. Otherwise, he wouldn't be so careless and a little bit adorable. Chaos was ashamed because he was in front of him. His soulmate. It was funny and flattering. He never imagined seeing the other behave in that way.

When the cold wind of the night made Kenny shiver a little (he was wearing only a short sleeve t-shirt) Chaos seemed to regain his composure and stood up making a hand gesture for Kenny to follow him. "Come. Get into your house, I bet it is warmer there."

Kenny felt pretty dumb following Chaos to his doorstep but didn't protest. However, when they reached the entrance and Chaos used his powers to mess up with the electric lock and opened the door, Kenny frowned.

"You.. the alarm?... You broke it!"

"No, no." It seemed Chaos opened the door without thinking because he was really surprised by Kenny’s accusation. "I just activated the locks, the same way if you had put your password… it's fine, it still works."

Kenny had seen Chaos messing up so many other electronic devices, that he was not surprised he had deactivated his alarm with ease. However, as a civilian, knowing that some villain could do that to his house was unsettling.

"I… I'm… well, I gotta go. Please don’t tell anyone you saw me." Chaos repeated and started to walk backwards. Kenny had never seen Chaos go from nervous to confident and nervous again. In fact, he had only seen crazy and annoying.

"Thank you for saving me." Said before the villain fled, even if he knew he wouldn't have jumped from the stairs if Chaos hadn't been on his roof.

Chaos stopped the retreat "You're welcome... It was the least I could do since my bots startled you." He tilted his head and a small smile appeared on his lips again.

Then he vanished in the night

Kenny went inside his house and stood in his drawing-room, unable to think... if he could ever start to think again.

Chaos said he was there to see if he was OK after the attack. He was there for him. He didn't say it directly, but it was obvious. Kenny smiled a little, feeling butterflies in his stomach. He really cared for him. His soulmate did think of him.

Kenny wondered, why didn't Chaos pull his helmet off? And what would have happened if Kenny took the initiative and did it for him? How would it feel to watch your soul mate's eyes shine?

If Chaos was worried about his well being, maybe he wasn't so bad. If he only stopped being a maniac and behaved more as he did minutes ago. Maybe…

Kenny could give it a try. Also, who said that Kenny should become a villain? What if Kenny got Chaos to become good? How terrible would it be? After all, they were meant to be.

Damn. He was really giving thought into this.

His internal voice told him he was just shocked by the recent episode. And that he saying he would make Chaos good, sounded dumb. He was more likely to die trying than changing Chaos behavior. Kenny was going to die.

Only that, not really. He was Mysterion and he couldn't die, he knew how to fight and defend himself. Even more important, he was a hero. It was his duty to save people. If he fixed Chaos, how many lives would he be saving? In fact, by trying to deny his destiny, maybe he was condemning people to suffer by Chaos' hands.

Yeah, that was a good and reasonable reason to pursue Chaos. He was not petty. He was a hero, and heroes sacrificed themselves for others. Even if they had to date supervillains.

Also, Chaos was destined to be his to fix, the matchmaker gave him the upper hand to do it. It was his duty to prevent Chaos dating some villain, because, obviously, Chaos was dating a villain. When his adorable expressions existed only for him to see.

Chaos got nervous around him because he did like him. He lied to Mysterion. He could do something.

Suddenly he remembered the data Kyle stored about Chaos. That info was what he needed to start his 'fixing Chaos' plan. Kyle and Stan had already concluded the data was indecipherable, but, contrary to his friends, Mysterion had no problems scaring some of the matchmaker's developers to get the answers he needed.

He wasn't scared to look for answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I hope you liked the chapter :)  
Headcanon: Chaos' powers are linked to his emotions. Every time he gets flustered, distress or extremely happy he has a hard time controlling them.


	5. The Matchmaker's Clon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mysterion gets a new mission.

Mysterion was standing in the middle of the bedroom of the lead scientist in the Matchmaker project, Wendy Testaburger, disappointed because that room, like the rest of the house, was empty.

He broke into her home assuming he could convince her to help him to decipher Chaos' information, but by looking at the dust on her dresser and the smell of loneliness in the house, it was clear that she hadn't been in her place for a long time.

If he couldn't find any clue there, the next step would be to break in the lab where the matchmaker was developed, and that would be a difficult task. Tupperware had taken the protection of the device as a personal matter and Kenny was running out of ideas to get rid of Kyle and Stan, soon they would be suspicious. 

Wendy's house was normal. Too normal. As it had been Kenny's apartment before Chaos set it on fire. Which meant that there was probably something hidden, waiting for him to find it. 

He began to look for anything that seemed odd, and soon he found a hidden room. Although it seemed somewhat excessive, Mysterion was not surprised. After all, Wendy was a prominent scientist and she had access to sensitive information on a day-to-day basis. In fact, the suspicious part was that the room had been relatively easy to find.

The space was small, like a shed, and there he found a desk with a computer and various papers on it. The chair in front of the desk seemed worn from use and the floor was stained due to spilled coffee that wasn’t cleaned up in time.

Kenny wasted no time and turned the computer on in hopes of finding something useful. As he went from one file to another, copying and pasting all the info he considered important, the specifications of a Matchmaker's "clone" caught his eye.

The file said that during the development of the matchmaker Wendy had some trouble building the eye scanner and her superiors forced her to seek help from a private company.

Wendy didn't want anyone to have access to the matchmaker, so she built a "clone" of the device. The clone was pretty similar to the original, but it was built with limited functions so the private company could develop the eye scan without giving them access to the actual Matchmaker.

The file also included a signed statement of the CEO's company where he promised to keep the matchmaker's clone in a safe and secret place. Away from the reach of anyone.

If Mysterion found the clone existence a lucky break (because Kite could use it to decipher Chaos information without pressure) seeing the photo of the eye scanner project leader was more fate than luck.

It was Leopold. Leopold Stotch.

Kenny stopped any other task. The photo made him remember the warm feeling he felt when he was chatting with Leopold in the cafeteria. He really liked the blonde, even if the other described his job as boring and unimportant (an obvious lie). He thought their paths would never cross again, nor that he would learn his full name.

Leopold's sheet had some info about his credentials, and details of the company of which he, surprisingly, was CEO. That company built those horrible smartwatches that were on TV. At first glance, Kenny couldn't picture Leopold as a scientist, but now he could identify a nerdy aura surrounding him.

Kenny was so concentrated reading the information that he didn’t realize that someone approached him from behind until he felt a sharp claw pressing against his neck. "'What are you doing?" asked the newcomer threatening him.

Mysterion tensed at first, but when he identified The Coon’s voice, he relaxed. Not because he trusted the other hero, but because he knew how to free himself. With a quick movement, he made the other lose his balance and reversed positions. Now it was Mysterion holding a knife against The Coon’s neck.

The Coon growled in defeat. "Stay away from me Mysterion. I didn't know it was you."

Mysterion rolled his eyes, there was no way he didn’t recognize him. "Don’t fuck with me Coon," said while releasing him. He had no other option, they were supposed to be on the same team.

While The Coon was fixing his clothes, he told Mysterion that he was guarding Wendy's house to catch anyone who tried to steal information about the matchmaker. Tupperware’s orders. And Mysterion had to tell him what he was doing there if he didn’t want to get in trouble with their 'boss'.

Mysterion was quite tempted to tell him not to stick his nose in his business, but, since he didn't want to raise suspicions, he had to tell him he was trailing Chaos and imagined that reaching out to Wendy was a good start.

The other eyed him, it was obvious that he didn't believe a single word, but instead of questioning him, he told him that Wendy had disappeared from the face of the earth weeks ago, no one knew where she was or if she was even alive.

There also wasn’t any point in looking for the rest of the scientists, The Coon had already interrogated them and the government had also allowed Doctor Timothy to rape their minds. Neither of them got answers.

The Coon was more talkative than usual, and Mysterion was just going to let him talk when they heard someone else was in the house. Both ran to fight the intruder, but only caught a glimpse of the New Kid before the time froze.

When Mysterion and The Coon were able to move again, Wendy's computer was in flames, and Mysterion's pen drive was gone. The Coon was quite upset and abandoned his fellow superhero without saying a word.

Maybe Mysterion needed to worry more about what was going on, but now he had a more important mission. Finding the Matchmaker's clone, and that meant paying Leopold a visit. The idea excited him more than it should.

**   
  
** When Kenny got back to his home, he was not surprised when, upon entering, he discovered Kyle and Stan sitting in the living room, struggling not to ask him how he managed to lose them at the supermarket. Instead, they casually asked him what he had done all day.

While he was making up a boring story and watching Stan biting his nails and Kyle trying not to melt him with his eyes beams. He realized they were considering the idea of locking him up somewhere. Maybe they were telling themselves that doing so would be for Kenny's own good.

Kenny sighed. If he wanted to avoid risks, his best move would be to contact Leopold as Kenny. Maybe he could walk around his workplace and pretend he met him there by chance. The only problem was that he was so excited to meet him that... he shouldn't meet him.

He knew himself. When he finds someone he likes, he always does his best to have them. He wasn't going to be able to resist Leopold, and that would be wrong. He wasn't like Chaos. He wasn't going to flirt, let alone have a date, with someone else when he had his soul mate in his sights.

Furthermore, flirting with someone who was notoriously inexperienced, only to find his soulmate seemed pretty low. No. Mysterion was a better option. As Mysterion he could directly ask for Leopold's help and everything would be faster.

"Kenny, aren't you hungry?" Stan pointed to the only pizza slice Kenny had taken and wasn't yet finished eating.

"Eh"

"I don’t blame you." Kyle was looking with distaste at the slice he was reluctantly eating and handed a beer to Kenny, who shrugged and accepted it. "I told you to order from the place Christophe recommended us," said Kyle to his other friend.

Stan began to choke. It had been a long time since Kyle had mentioned his boyfriend. "Are you implying that he has better taste than me?"

"Of course he has a better taste than you," Kyle muttered.

**   
  
** After dinner, while he was leaving his house through the window, Kenny took off the tracker that Stan foolishly put on him, and recalled that he didn't have so many problems sneaking out of his house when he was a teenager. In fact, his parents didn't give a shit what he did.

In less than half an hour, he was in front of Leopold's house. This would be the second time in a day he would commit the crime of trespassing.

Stotch's house was big considering it was within the city, it had a large garden with several bushes that were perfect for sneaking in, and large windows that were not recommended for anyone who wanted to enjoy their privacy.

In the garden were some guard dogs sleeping and the house had a rather complex security system, but this was a child's play for Mysterion. And, as he pulled cables to bypass the surveillance system and turn off the alarm, he imagined how cool it would be to have Chaos' powers and be able to turn everything off with one touch.

Mysterion poked his face from one window to another until he stood on the small balcony of Leopold's bedroom. When he saw the blonde standing in the middle of the room, chatting with a redhead man, his heart started pounding fast. Kenny did remember he liked Leopold but he didn't remember his feelings were this wild. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He had to keep a cool head, get what he needed, and get out of there right away.

“I don’t agree with what you want to do.” heard the ginger say with a firm voice.

Leopold put a hand to his chin, clueless. "About what?"

"Butters" the man narrowed his eyes. "You know perfectly well what I'm talking about."

"Butters,"  Mysterion muttered. The blonde's nickname sounded cute: Butters Stotch. 

The blonde pursed his lips and then sighed. "I told you, you don't have to worry about a thing."

"But…"

Butters raised a finger to shut him up. "Everything will be fine. I promise." As he said that he looked his companion in the eye and smiled.

The ginger stopped his breathing and looked away, slightly flushed. "We have worked hard for this." He grimaced " 'That' isn't even important. It's not worth it, it's a waste of time and a..."

"Dougie, everything will be fine," Leopold repeated, he was no longer smiling. "You can go home." After that, he turned his back on him and walked to his closet, ending their conversation.

Dougie seemed to want to protest and walked behind Butters, but in the end, he just sighed and walked out of the room. "Okay, but call me if something happens," he said before closing the door.

**   
  
** When Mysterion saw Dougie left and Leopold checking his smartwatch, he assumed it was time to break into the room. However, when he was about to make his presence noticed Leopold stopped looking at his smartwatch and removed his shirt in one motion.

Kenny froze, he was sure that he shouldn’t get into the room while the other was taking his clothes off. The most polite thing was to wait for Butters to get dressed, but he also didn't want to wait (and spy). Actually, he did want that, but he shouldn't. Peeping wasn't a heroic thing to do.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't take his eyes away from the man who was stripping in front of him. He stayed there, looking at the other's bare skin. Hypnotized by his slightly toned arms and biceps, his belly, and the tantalizing way how his pants hung from his hip. The fine body he hadn't noticed in the cafeteria, because he had been marveled at the fact of how compatible Leopold and he were.

Butters pulled his pants down and Kenny had to cover his mouth not to make any sound. He had the image of Leopold bending down and showing him his butt, engraved in his eyes. It was a pity he had only put down his pants and not his boxers. He'd tap that ANY DAY of the week.

"I don't think we should be doing this," said a voice above him, and Kenny almost fell off the balcony due to the surprise.

"Toolshed!" exclaimed as soon as he identified his friend, hanging off the wall.

"What's crackin'?" Stan saluted with a goofy smile.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was following you. Did you really think I'd just put one tracker on you? You eat one too. That will teach you not to trash talk about my pizza."

Mysterion opened his eyes. “What did you say?”

“Don’t worry, you will not have problems when you go to the bathroom. Or so I think.”

Stan made him eat a tracker device?! Had he discovered his secret identity?

"So..." Toolshed jumped from the wall to stand beside Kenny. "What are we doing here?"

Mysterion didn't answer, still astonished.

"Hey, calm down dude, we can talk about this later.” Stan scratched his chin and chuckled. “I mean, I'm surprised too, but also relieved. This explains so many things."

Mysterion looked at Toolshed for a few seconds more before fully understanding and accepting that he had been discovered. He sighed. Of course, they were going to have a very long talk about this. Although it made him happy to discover that Stan didn't seem angry. “Yeah, OK. It’s about the… the matchmaker.”

Toolshed giggled and Mysterion blushed a little. Fortunately, his hood covered his face, but he could already imagine all the teasing he was going to endure.

However, he couldn't explain to his friend what they should be doing there because they heard a shoot before the window broke into pieces. They took cover.

"Who's there?" asked Leopold, gun in hand, pointing at their position. Kenny was certain that this wasn't the time to think that the blonde looked attractive, in underwear, pointing a gun at him, but he was.

Stan didn't hesitate to throw a nail to Butters and make him drop his gun, and right afterward launched himself at the blonde to immobilize him against the ground. Leopold screamed because he did not expect the attack and fought to free himself from Stan.

"Who are you? Let me go! I already called the police!"

"Toolshed, release him." Mysterion got into the room and tried not to sound as disturbed as he felt when he looked at the expression in Butters' face. The blonde was beyond angry.

Butters stopped struggling when he realized someone else was in there. Stan hesitated, he didn't seem to want to let go of the person who had just shot at them.

"Toolshed," Mysterion warned again and Stan reluctantly stood up.

"Emm" Mysterion approached the owner of the house and held out his hand to help him stand up. "Hello. Are you okay?"

Leopold looked at Mysterion's outstretched hand, then at Toolshed and then at the rest of the room. As if waiting for some other superhero to emerge from the shadows.

"No," he replied after several seconds of silence, not accepting Mysterion's hand. "What are you doing at my house? I really called the police, they'll be here soon."

Kenny was a little devastated by the blonde's rejection and decided to squat down in front of him. "You remember me, right? I helped you and your friend the other day."

Butters frowned but ended up nodding.

"I'm sorry. We didn't mean to scare you," he said in a soft voice, and Stan raised an eyebrow. Mysterion was acting weird.

“What are you doing here?” asked Leopold again. Still frowning and trying to stay away from Mysterion.

“We need your help."

The blonde narrowed his eyes. Not believing that Mysterion was in front of him, reaching out his hand, asking for his help. "What for?" 

Kenny sat across from him and, still using a calm voice, explained to Leopold he needed access to the Matchmaker's clone he had in his possession.

The scientist had a slight spasm and shook his head. "I don’t know what you are talking about. Also, I have already talked with your people. They said they would leave me alone."

Mysterion remembered The Coon words and, at last, understood why Leopold seemed fed up and scared of superheroes. He had been interrogated by the team, maybe in an unkind way if The Coon was involved.

However, he knew Butters was lying, his sheet said he was still guarding the Matchmaker’s clone. Kenny was about to tell him how much he needed his help when Dougie appeared on the door. He was holding a gun.

"Lookout" Toolshed used his drilling power to mess with Dougie's balance and prevent him from shooting at Mysterion.

"Butters, are you OK?" Dougie stood aside from the blonde. Then he growled at the superheroes "stay away!"

Dougie pulled the trigger again but this time Mysterion was prepared and was able to dodge the bullets without help. Then they heard the sound of the police sirens, parking outside the house and that was their cue to leave. Toolshed and Mysterion jumped out of the window and ran away from the scene as fast as they could. They didn't stop until they were sure no one was following them.

Kenny cursed under his breath. Things didn’t go as planned and Butters might never tell him where the matchmaker's clone was.

"Mysterion" Toolshed knew that whatever Kenny's plan had been, it had failed because of him. “What was that about?”

"We're going home."

****   
  


They got to their home in their civilian clothes, but instead of getting inside, they sat in the backyard. Stan said they could talk there without being heard.

Marsh was looking at the sky when he asked him if he knew the identity of any other superhero, besides him. And didn't get surprised when Kenny answered he knew the identity of almost everyone. Including Kyle's. He swore that he did try to tell him the truth but he was afraid of their reaction.

Stan confessed that both, he and Kyle, planned to put a tracker on him. But, Stan went after him alone (without telling Kyle) because he figured it would be better that way. Kyle was quite paranoid, and while they both refused to believe that Kenny was involved with bad people, Kyle would have less tolerance if they discovered that Kenny was actually doing something bad. In fact, Stan was still curious to learn what Mysterion was planning. 

Even though Kenny knew he could trust his friend, he preferred to hide his true intentions and lie to him. Instead of telling him how he was planning on turning Chaos into a good citizen, he told Stan the only way he could get his previous life back was to find Chaos and put him behind bars.

Stan nodded his head in agreement, although his eyes had a sparkle of grief. It was sad to know Kenny had a villain as a soulmate, but it was devastating to hear Kenny himself reject the possibility of being happy with his soulmate for that reason.

His friend was a romantic guy, and probably he would have preferred to hear his real plan. But he couldn't tell him, Kenny didn't want Stan to blame himself if things went wrong.

Suddenly Marsh started to laugh. Since the matchmaker incident, he had felt guilty, thinking it was him who dragged Kenny to “their world”. It was a relief to learn that if Chaos and Kenny's fate was intertwined it was Kenny's own fault.

"Dude, I wished I'd paid attention to your face when the matchmaker said your name."

As an answer, Kenny groaned and hid his face between his hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last week was exhausting, SouthParkBroDown made me choose between Kenny and Butters, and I must say it was one of the most difficult decisions of my life (LOL).  
As always, thank you for your comments and kudos. The "filler" chapters are the most difficult for me to write.


	6. The Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has a date.

Kenny didn't want to tell Kyle anything about his true identity, but since he didn't want to ask Stan to keep a secret from his super best friend, he decided to tell Kyle everything during breakfast. Stan didn't get mad, and he promised Kyle wouldn't get mad either.

Kyle is always in a better mood after a good meal, so Kenny waits for him to eat breakfast before talking with him. For a moment he imagines Kyle getting mad and refusing to talk to him again, but then he takes a deep breath and convinces himself Kyle wouldn't react that way; Besides, Kenny needed to tell him everything anyway. So he could be free to put his plan to "make Chaos good" into action.

However, when Kenny was about to speak up, the doorbell rang. Stan ran to the door to dismiss whoever it was and prevent Kenny from losing his courage. Unfortunately for Stan, when he opened the door, he came face to face with Kyle's boyfriend, Christophe.

They could see the door from the dining room, so Kyle stood up as soon he recognized his boyfriend and ran to hug him before asking him what he was doing there. Kenny also stood up, just in time to see Kyle and Christophe kissing like there was no tomorrow.

Christophe still looked like Kenny remembered him. A tall, tough-looking guy. His tight black shirt, military pants, boots, and the cigarette hanging from the corner of his lips made him look like he was just out of an action movie. 

It was times like this when Kenny understood a little why Stan and Kyle weren't soulmates. Stan wasn't Kyle's type. In fact, despite being superheroes Kyle, Stan, and Kenny himself looked like teenagers next to Christophe.

"The bitches at your job won't let you rest. I thought I had to kidnap you if I wanted to spend time with you," Christophe answered Kyle's question, reminding them the excuse Kyle gave to his boyfriend to stop spending time with him as much as he used to.

"Kidnap me?"

"We are going to spend all day together." Kyle giggled and sideglanced Stan. He still believed they had to watch Kenny, and he was silently asking Stan for permission to skip his duty today.

"Hey," Christophe gave Kyle a short kiss. "I will not take no for an answer."

Kenny also looked at Stan and discovered him trying not to use his powers to kill Christophe. Sure, Stan could claim he was angry that Christophe had indirectly called Kenny and Stan bitches, but the truth was, he wanted to kill him because he was caressing Kyle's buttocks.

Minutes later, the promise of a date (and most likely sex) made Kyle leave with Christophe, and Kenny didn't blame him. Stan wanted to stop Kyle, but he didn't say anything. Even though it seemed Kyle was waiting for him to come up with some excuse.

Kenny sighed when he saw the expression of defeat on Stan's face. Every time Stan told Kyle that only soulmates should be together, instead of breaking apart Kyle from Christophe, he was taking a step further away from Kyle.

To improve Stan's mood, Kenny suggested that they should have a _ date _ too. Kenny was going to cheer him up by telling and showing him everything he knew about his fellow superheroes. Stan's eyes sparkled when he heard him.

A couple of hours later, Kenny and Stan were making their first stop on the sidewalk outside the offices of the newspaper where FastPass, AKA Jimmy, worked. While seeing Jimmy buy a bagel in the stand outside his office, Kenny told Stan he found out about Jimmy's identity because, among other things, he used to include classified information in his columns.

Later they went to Mosquito's workplace. Mosquito, AKA Clyde, was the owner of a shoe store and, when he wasn't trying to impress attractive customers, he was spending his time and money at some nudist bar. When Clyde got drunk, he used to brag about being a superhero, but nobody believed him because Clyde was a terrible fighter when he was intoxicated.

When Stan and Kenny got tired of seeing Clyde flirt, they walked to the nearest park until they reached Captain Diabetes' Ice Cream Parlor. While they were eating the berry-flavored ice cream they bought, Stan realized Captain Diabetes, Scott, had a very profitable business relationship with Mint Berry Crunch, Bradley.

Anyone who fought elbow to elbow with Bradley would link the berry flavored ice cream at Scott's ice cream parlor to Mintberry Crunch powers. Whereas Scott was just bad at hiding his identity, just like Stan.

While Stan was complaining that Kenny made him eat some Bradley's juice, Kenny snickered and asked him if he wanted to eat something at his favorite coffee shop and meet a couple who sucked even more than him at hiding his identity.

When they reached Tweeks Bros. Kenny noticed Craig and Tweek hadn't replaced the broken front shop window and some furniture was still missing, but the place was as full as always.

They approached the bar, Tweek took his order and, a few minutes later, Craig handed them their drinks. Stan snorted when he read Craig's uniform tag. It seemed Craig and Tweek didn't give a fuck if they get discovered.

"What?" Asked Craig, noticing Stan was looking at him and Tweek more than needed. Stan rolled his eyes, Craig didn't even care to change his voice.

"Your reopening was pretty quick," said Kenny as he leaned towards Craig, trying to distract him. Craig narrowed his eyes. He knew Kenny was a regular, but Stan raised his suspicions. "That's why you're my favorites," Kenny winked at him and reached out to touch Craig's shoulder.

Craig took a step back and turned his back at them. For a moment, he was curious to find out what they were up to, but immediately he gave up on the idea. Satisfying his curiosity wasn't as important as staying away from Kenny.

"It was a pleasure talking with you," Kenny blew Craig a kiss, and Craig gave him the finger. Kenny chuckled.

"Why were you flirting with Craig?" asked Stan while they were walking to their table. 

"That's how I discovered their true identities," he replied, still smiling as if he was remembering something quite amusing. "Tweek froze me in the middle of the street. That guy can't handle some competition."

Stan was surprised to learn how far Kenny went to fulfill his mission. He would never have guessed Mysterion flirted with Super Craig to get Wonder Tweek to give himself away, but he could totally picture Kenny doing that.

In fact, as time went by, Stan and Kenny felt the barrier between them vanished. They didn't hide a lot of their personality to the other, but now they could make some comments without raising eyebrows.

For example, Kenny couldn't just say to anyone he had put his life in danger on purpose (and that sometimes he died by mistake) because he was curious about the extent of his superpowers.

On the other side, Stan was even more relaxed. He was telling him some bad jokes and was extremely relieved to learn that, so far, none of their superhero friends was an eccentric millionaire. 

Suddenly, someone standing beside their table, and the sound of a cup hitting the wood surface of it, interrupted their conversation. When both raised their heads, they found Leopold was looking at them.

"Hi," said the newcomer with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. 

"Oh, Hi!" Kenny immediately stretched his back. Going into panic mode, wondering what was Butters doing there.

Leopold gave Stan a stink-eye, before looking at Kenny with a wide smile. "Hi," said again.

"Hi," repeated Kenny, feeling his belly tingling.

Stan grimaced, wondering what was happening there.

Marsh had never seen his friend acting like a deer in the headlights, but there he was forgetting the entire dictionary. Also, the newcomer... he had seen him before. "Oh, right!" he exclaimed remembering that the blonde shot at him the night before. That made the other look at him.

“Leopold, how-how are you?"

"Fine, can I sit down with you?" asked, pointing at the vacant chair on their table. 

"Su-sure." McCormick wanted to say no because he was having a hard time not imagining Leopold naked. But he didn't want to be rude. Also, deep down, he did want to chat with him, even if he knew he shouldn't do it while being Kenny. "This's Stan."

"Stan," Stotch muttered and frowned for a second before smiling. "Nice to meet you, I'm Leopold."

"Sup," Stan greeted, not very lively.

"How are you?" Kenny tried to focus. "I couldn't write your number down and I didn't know how to contact you."

"Did you want to call me?!" Butters brightened. Then he realized he showed his excitement and blushed while hiding his face.

Kenny smiled, seeing Leopold's expression made him forget why he didn't want to interact with him. He really liked the blonde, he wanted to touch him in not very innocent ways. "Sure."

"I mean.. I-I'm fine. How-how are you? I got worried when I lost you."

"Yeah, sorry about that, some people pushed me away. I tried to find you, but… I'm happy to see you are OK."

Butters, still blushed, confessed he had been going to the coffee shop almost every day hoping to find Kenny. Kenny felt like he was melting from inside and officially forgot everything about Chaos, how he wasn't supposed to flirt with the man across him, and that he has a mission to complete. He couldn't even remember Stan was at the same table as him.

Stan, however, did not want to be ignored, so he got into their conversation trying to figure out what they were talking about. Kenny explained how he met Butters, and that seemed to give Stan an idea because, when Butters got a call and left them alone for a moment, Stan whispered to Kenny's ear that he understood what he was doing.

Kenny, on the other hand, had no idea what he meant. "What?"

"You're going to get from him the information we need," Stan said as if that was obvious.

"From who?" Kenny still had no idea.

Stan rolled his eyes and pointed Butters with his head. Kenny had to overthink to understand. Stan probably imagined that Kenny had been tracking Butters weeks ago, and not that everything had been a curious coincidence.

Kenny shook his head, concerned. And Stan seemed quite disturbed that he couldn't communicate with him the same way he used to do with Kyle. "Whatever, this is perfect. Distract him while I look for any clue in his house. ”

Kenny bit his lower lip. Stan's idea was good, but it made Kenny remember that he shouldn't be around Butters. He had to get out of there because he was behaving like a fool. "I'd rather ask him again."

"No. He's not going to tell us anything, and I don't want to be shot again." Kenny tried to protest, but Butters returned to the table, and he had to shut up.

Then Stan got up. "I have to go, it was nice meeting you," Stan gave Butters a wide smile, then winked at Kenny as he raised his thumb. Not caring that he wasn't being subtle and that Butters could see him.

Stan didn't usually act that way, but considering how many times Kenny made fun of him using Kyle as an excuse, his friend's attitude was obvious revenge.

"Emm bye," Butters replied, blushed.

"How about we get out of here?" Kenny asked knowing that if Stan was heading to Butters' house, he had no choice but to entertain the blonde.

"OK," Butters replied, still ashamed.

When they left the cafeteria, Kenny asked Butters if he wanted to play mini-golf, hoping the other wouldn't consider that very childish.

To his surprise, Butters answered "Yes" immediately.

"I know a good place," one relatively far away that would give Stan more than enough time to look for clues in Butters' house.

"Kenneth, we can take my car," Butters suggested as soon as he saw Kenny was going to ask for a taxi.

McCormick accepted the suggestion and, as they walked into what Butters called the parking lot of his workplace, he asked him to call him "Kenny."

"Oh well. Kenny. Ken. Call me Butters."

"Butters?"

"Yes, it's my nickname. My dad used to call me that way."

Butters greeted the security guard of the parking and the man bowed his head as an answer. That made Kenny remember Butters was the CEO of that company. 

When they got to Butters' car, Kenny couldn't help but get excited, it was the newest Tesla in the market. Leopold smiled, and Kenny almost had an orgasm when he told him he could drive.

While driving Kenny figured that maybe this was how he would turn into a villain and "meet" Chaos. Kenny was going to damage Butters' car, and he would probably have to rob a bank to pay him. Luckily, 30 minutes later, they reached their destination without incidents.

It had been a long time since Kenny played mini-golf, but he still remembered enough not to make a fool of himself. Butters, on the other hand, told him he was pretty good, and he showed it quite quickly in the first courses.

Butters smiled a little every time he made a good shot, but he didn't seem comfortable when Kenny praised him. However, Kenny kept doing it, because he liked the crimson on Butter's cheeks.

One hour later, they were drinking a soda, sitting on the bench next to a vending machine, while watching the other players. "So, do you really like mini-golf? You are amazingly good at it."

"Yeah, " Butters scratched his head. "Mom and dad used to play golf in Hawaii before I was born, but when they got here, they had to settle with playing mini-golf. They taught me."

"That sounds nice, " said Kenny, trying to remember if his dad taught him anything else besides how to dodge empty beer bottles. "They must be proud."

"They were… well, I think they might still be, but they are dead now. So I'm not sure." Butters took a sip of his soda.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, they died when I was twelve years old. And my adoptive mom took good care of me."

Even if it seemed that Butters wasn't affected at all by remembering his dead parents, Kenny hugged him. Butters leaned his body against him, and Kenny felt a nice and warm sensation surrounding his body.

"I didn't mean to make it awkward. What about you? Where did you learn to play mini-golf?" Asked Butters, feeling comfy between his arms.

"My little sister, Karen. She likes mini-golf."

"Great, you have a sister."

"And a big brother too."

"I wish I had one. I have Dougie, though. He's not my little brother, but we have been together for so long that he may be." Kenny remembered Dougie, the ginger that shot at him.

They kept talking and hugging, and decided to leave the family topic when Kenny confessed his mom and dad were as good parents as anyone may expect from a couple of junkies.

Both were trapped by the other's magnetism, and Kenny was tracing Butters back with his fingers when he took his time to appreciate his partner's face.

As they looked into each other's eyes, Kenny felt the need to close the small distance between them. Leopold's lips were begging to be kissed and bitten.

However, Kenny's phone rang with a message from Stan, telling him he was already outside Butters' house. That made Kenny shake his head, asking himself what was he doing? Chaos was his real mission. His soulmate was the reason why he was with Butters in the first place.

He stood up abruptly, scaring his partner. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just remembered that I have something to do."

Butters seemed genuinely confused when he saw Kenny started to walk away. "Wait, don't you want me to take you home?"

"Don't worry, I'm not heading downtown." Kenny tried to appease him with a smile. "I'll call you," he said, seeing that Butters was still stumped by his attitude.

"You… you don't have my number," Butters muttered, looking at Kenny as if he were leaving him after a one night stand. For a moment their souls had been connected and now they weren't.

"Right," Kenny laughed awkwardly, and after writing down his number, he almost ran away.

  
  
Mysterion caught up with Toolshed and Human Kite a few buildings away from Butters' house, and as soon as he greeted them Toolshed asked him if Kenny was secured in their place.

Mysterion quickly understood that Stan did not want Kyle to know about his secret identity yet, although he did not know why. He was supposed to tell Kyle the truth.

"I had to ask Mysterion to help me since you decided you have better things to do than look out for our friend." Stan tried to start a fight with Kyle, but Kenny cleared his throat and warned Stan with his eyes not to dare use him to guilt-trip his other friend.

Later Kenny would have to explain in detail to Stan why and how he was ruining everything with Kyle.

Both ended up telling Kyle everything about the existence of the matchmaker clone, and how they had to find a way to get it from Butters to be able to discover Chaos' true identity.

Stan added he had found a secret room in Butters' home, but the only way to get in it was to get a scan of Leopold's right eye.

Kyle tried to come up with a plan to get what they needed, but Stan said he had it all covered while looking directly into Mysterion's eyes. Stan was counting on Kenny to trick Leopold.

  
  
That night, Kenny decided to rest on his roof before going to sleep. He was feeling guilty by remembering Butters' expression when he abandoned him. He was also confused, and unsure if his plan still made sense.

Rob Butters for Chaos? Or abandon Butters because Chaos was his soulmate and he shouldn’t be with someone else? What was he thinking? He didn't even know Chaos, not as much as he knew Butters, and he barely knew Butters.

Also, he liked the little he knew about him. Not like how he hated the little he knew about Chaos. Since the last time he and Chaos had spoken, the villain hadn't even contacted him again. So, maybe he was wasting his time, and putting Chaos behind bars was the right call.

Kenny sighed and closed his eyes. Trying to relax, however, he heard footsteps beside him.

"Not now Stan, I want to be alone."

"Oh!, why's that?"

Kenny opened his eyes immediately as he recognized Chaos's voice. "What ... what are you doing here?" He got up so fast that he got a little dizzy.

Chaos sat next to him. He had a serious expression that Kenny had never seen before.

"I came to check on the person I told you about the other day."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Chaos looked down and then smiled slightly. "How are you, Kenny?"

Kenny felt his heart beating very fast and remembered why a few days ago he convinced himself that his duty was to go after Chaos. The feelings Butters aroused in him were nothing compared to what the villain made him feel.

It shouldn't surprise him, after all, Chaos was his soulmate, not Butters.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At last, a new chapter, I hope you liked it. As always, thank you for your kudos and comments, I promise I'll be answering all tomorrow. Thanks to [Walrus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrashWalrus4Sale/profile) too, the amazing beta of this story!!!
> 
> Now, this fanfic is my priority and I'm not going to publish something else until this one is finished, but, sometimes, when I'm blocked, I like to write other stories. Currently, I've been bouncing between two projects and I'd like to know which one would you rather read? One is the second part of [ Blindfold](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17314175) (heh), and the other is an omegaverse (cuz after the soulmates thing, the omegaverse is a must-do.) These are the summaries:
> 
> **The Princess of His Dreams**  
Princess Kenny of Imagination Land kidnaps Butters, aka The Chosen-one, hoping he could help her to protect her kingdom from the bad side. Now Butters has to deal with a battle, the aftermath of it, and the fact, that he might have cheated on his boyfriend, the very real Kenny McCormick.
> 
> **Something Just Like This**  
Butters, mourning Kenny's death and regretting never having told him how much he loved him, poses as his partner to be artificially inseminated and have his child.
> 
> The problem? Kenny comes back to life.
> 
> Nyehehe. Read you soon =D.


	7. The Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chaos and Kenny chat on the roof.

Kenny's mind was blank. His soulmate was sitting next to him, hinting that he was someone very special, and he didn't know what to say. In other circumstances he would have flirted back, but this was Chaos, and he had just found out that a small smile of his made his heart race.

It had been hard to accept it, but now, when he felt happiness flooding his chest he could say he had always had feelings for the villain. He had always longed to be trapped into Chaos' evil plans, just to escape and see him pout while promising the next time he’d make him pay.

He wondered if Chaos felt the same way when he was next to Mysterion. Probably not. It took him a long time to even consider that he liked Chaos. But, what if Chaos did feel something? The villain was happy every time he saw Mysterion. True, Chaos always had a smile that said, ‘today is a great day to destroy the world’ (until they stopped him.) Every time he saw him, his voice became softer and more toned.

"To be clear, because this will get awkward later on if I'm wrong," Kenny said, trying to keep his voice casual. "Are you saying that I am this important person?"

Chaos, who until that moment was trying to look all cool and mysterious, stopped breathing and peered at Kenny. Then, he chuckled as if his companion had told him a bad joke and was embarrassed to laugh. "Yeah, I’m talking about you... I thought I was clear the last time we met," he said, whispering the last part.

Kenny blushed and shrugged. "Yeah, but you came out of nowhere, and I was wondering if I didn't imagine you... and why? I'd like to know why? "

Chaos' smile faltered. "Oh. It's complicated." 

“Complicated?” Maybe it would be a bit strange to explain how Chaos knew they were soulmates when they had never seen eye to eye. But it wasn't complicated at all, Kenny wasn't dumb. “How is it complicated?”

“Well.” Chaos’ expression told Kenny that he was second-guessing his presence there. “It just is.”

Kenny nodded slightly, considering what to say next. “Complicated like... are you planning to kill me?”

Weeks ago Kenny imagined that Chaos would try to kill him. It was a fact that the heroes wouldn't dare to use the matchmaker on Kenny to find out Chaos' identity (the matchmaker was supposed to kill the people that use it). But the villain didn't die so maybe Tupperware lied to them. Chaos might be considering killing his soulmate to keep his secret identity and, sure, that’s complicated.

The other shook his head furiously. “No! I’ll never harm you! I… I don’t even… I also said I didn't mean to hurt you, didn't I? Are you... Did you say that because you know who I am, right?"

"Yes, I know who you are. You are Chaos, a supervillain." Kenny answered slowly, trying to restore his companion's calm.

“Yeah, that’s me." Chaos took a deep breath. “But you don’t have to worry. I assure you that I’ll never hurt you. I’ll kill myself before harming you… And I’ll bathe in the blood of anyone who dares to hurt you.”

After hearing him, Kenny couldn't help but look around. It didn't hurt to plan an escape route. “I figured… that you don’t have any intention to harm me, but I had to ask.”

He tried not to wonder if Chaos would kill himself when he finds out he is Mysterion, then he wrinkled his nose at the thought of Chaos gutting someone. While Chaos was quite a dangerous villain, he had earned that reputation for taking advantage of the butterfly effect to create economic and social disasters, but not for being violent or merely sadistic.

"So what's so special about me?" Kenny asked again.

"...I can't say." Chaos said after a few seconds. "That's why it's complicated, not because I want to hurt you, but if I told you, I could hurt you and-and I already said I would never hurt you." His voice was soft and shy, which made Kenny believe him. "I know you probably won't trust me. Someone like me, showing up and telling these strange things. I tried to do it another way, but I'm impatient and I-I wanted to see you."

_ 'I wanted to see you.'  _ Kenny didn't know how eager he had been to hear those words until he heard them. For a second he thought about making everything easier and confessing he already knew they were soulmates, even telling him he is Mysterion, but the villain wouldn't trust him after knowing that.

"I can leave if that’s what you want." Chaos offered, realizing that Kenny wasn't planning to speak.

"No. Please stay." Kenny took Chaos' hand and felt the familiar tingling he had experienced every time he touched him.

Their cheeks flushed and after a few seconds in silence McCormick decided to jokingly tell Chaos that, since he couldn't tell him what he was doing there, maybe he could tell him what his latest plan to take over the world was.

He regretted opening his mouth when Chaos peered at him, but then the villain told him his current project was on hiatus because he lacked some materials. Kenny didn't expect to get an answer and was wondering if he should test his luck a little more and ask for details when Chaos changed the subject.

"What did Stan do to you?"

"Stan?" Kenny couldn't help but get defensive, and his companion noticed it.

"Stan, you mentioned him before. When you-you thought I was him.”

Kenny nodded suspiciously. His friends were superheroes perfectly capable of defending themselves, but Mysterion would never let any kind of danger befall them.

"I mean, who is him? I’m assuming he did something to you since you didn't seem very happy when I arrived." Chaos' voice, permeated with false innocence, left no doubt that he did know who Stan was.

"He didn't do anything. I just wanted to be alone." Kenny fled to the roof to stop listening to Stan explain how they were going to fool Leopold. Someone genuinely interested in Kenny, whom he intended to use, get him in trouble with the government, and even ruin his company.

"Are you OK? Is there something I can do for you?” asked Chaos as soon as he noticed concern invaded his companion's face.

"I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? I can do anything you want me to."

“No, thanks.”

“I can really, really do ANYTHING you want." 

Kenny gave his companion an awkward smile. “It's just a mistake I made in the afternoon, nothing you can fix unless you can turn back time."

"Oh, no. I think that would be great, but I can only do this." Chaos raised his hands, and small rays shot out from his fingertips. "But I'm all ears." He tilted his head slightly, like a puppy pretending to be focused.

Kenny smiled a little and took a deep breath. “I was with a friend, but I had to leave in a rush, and he seemed pretty hurt. I was kinda rude."

Chaos opened his mouth making a perfect O but didn't let out a sound. Then he seemed to realize that he had made a silly face and decided to speak. "I'm-I'm sure you had a good reason."

"Something like that, yes."

“Then, he’ll understand.”

“Yeah, I suppose. He’s nice.” Kenny looked at his roof tiles, once again feeling a little guilty, but ended up shaking his head. There was no use thinking about Butters now.

"So, do you have any favorite TV show?" asked Kenny, to change the subject.

Chaos managed a small smile. "Yeah, Keeping Up with the Kardashians" replied, quite proud of his tastes.

Kenny tried to hold back a laugh and choked on his saliva.

"You don’t like it?" Chaos asked, concerned when he realized that Kenny was laughing at him. “Do you think it's bad?”

“No! I'm not a fan of reality shows. But, if you like it... it must be good? It's just that it's not something I imagined you would like."

"Well," Chaos bit his lower lip. “I never miss an episode."

Kenny tried to fix his slip by confessing that he was an anime fan. And before he knew it, he was explaining to Chaos the different types of genres, while Chaos seemed determined to follow his recommendations on what to watch.

The conversation was so pleasant and exciting that after several minutes Kenny was having trouble keeping the volume of his voice down and almost suffered a heart attack when his neighbor decided to take out the trash.

They both lay down on the ceiling, hoping the shadows would cover them, and didn't make a sound as the neighbor dragged his trash can out onto the street and then returned home yawning loudly. Once his neighbor was at his home, Kenny and Chaos looked at each other and started laughing like they were teenagers who had just avoided being caught by a strict teacher while skipping classes.

Although the spotlight on the street lamp was on, Kenny could not fully see his companion's features because the visor of his helmet covered half of his face. But he could see his smile, and it attracted him like a light attracted moths.

Chaos was so appealing that the hero didn't notice he was getting closer to the villain until their lips touched. The skin of his entire body prickled at the contact, never in his life had he felt something so soft and fluffy touching him. Then came the wetness from brushing their tongues.

At first, it seemed that Chaos didn’t know what to do and stood still letting Kenny explore his mouth but when he ventured to move his tongue, the friction caused Kenny's nerves to send electric currents to his spine.

Without really being aware of what he was doing, Kenny put both hands on Chaos' helmet and raised it slightly. He wasn't planning on removing it completely, he just wanted to have a little more space, but his movement scared Chaos.

"Don’t do that!" ordered him severely, placing both his hands on Kenny’s.

It didn't take long for Kenny to snap out of his trance. "I'm sorry ... I just wanted to kiss you better."

"It's-it's okay, just don't do it,” said Chaos with a normal voice tone, to let Kenny know that he wasn't really angry.

They didn’t put distance between them, but the magic that forced them to stick to each other was fading and there was an awkward silence between them. Finally, Chaos was the first to decide to break the silence.

“And, your friend… the one you made sad” Chaos clarified. "How is he? besides being nice."

"I met him recently," Kenny replied as if the subject was unimportant. He wanted to leave behind the awkward moment too, but he didn't want to put Leopold on Chaos' radar.

"How did you meet him?" Chaos didn't seem to understand that Kenny didn't feel like talking about Butters.

"In a cafeteria, the tables were full and we had to share."

“Oh, sounds like an uncommon way to make a friend. He must be quite interesting, isn’t he?"

"There is nothing special about him," Kenny said, trying to end that topic.

Chaos made a sound of understanding, but it was as if the sound had been knocked out of him. “Nothing special about him” repeated Kenny’s words, slowly letting them sink in his mind. “Then, why do you care how he feels?” Chaos asked, no longer using the cheerful tone of before. His voice was low, so low that Kenny wasn't sure he spoke.

“What did...”

“If there’s nothing special about him, why do you care that he felt down when you left him?” Chaos asked him almost in an accusatory tone.

“I...” Kenny got confused. “I didn’t mean to say he wasn’t special, I just don't know anything important about him.”

Chaos nodded his head. “Oh, OK. I think that makes sense... then… then you should call him and tell him to meet again, as compensation. That sure fixes everything." He tried to revert to a cheerful tone, but his voice no longer had the same warmth as before.

“Yeah...," Kenny said, still confused.

"Yo-you definitely should do that." Suddenly Chaos got up. "It's a bit late, I-I think I should go... Bye-bye Kenny."

Chaos made a gesture with his hand to remind Kenny that his presence there should be a secret but unlike the last time he made that gesture, he wasn’t smiling.

“Wait!” Kenny also stood up. “When will I see you again?” 

The question took Chaos by surprise. "You want to see me again?"

Kenny nodded and Chaos smiled again, the aura of sadness that had begun to surround him minutes before dissipating.

"Soon," he replied before leaving.

Kenny got off the roof and went into the house. The confusion he felt for Chaos’ sudden departure slowly turned into happiness.

He had just kissed his soulmate for the first time!

Chaos told him that he was important, he cared for his well-being and promised he'd do anything to keep him safe. Not that Kenny needed any kind of protection, but it was a nice feeling.

  
  
  


The next day in the afternoon, Kenny had to spend half an hour listening to Stan talking about how he had been working all morning on the blueprints for the device and how it would be ready by the end of the week.

Kenny still felt a little guilty, but he no longer protested. He wanted to see Chaos at any time and not wait until Chaos decided to visit him again. However, when Stan began to tell him details that Kenny wasn't interested in, he decided to interrupt his friend by asking when they were going to tell Kyle about his secret identity.

Stan tensed a little but pretended not to hear him.

Kenny sighed. "When are you going to tell him that you love him?"

"I do not love him."

"Sure." Kenny was ironic. "That's why you're trying to make him break up with Christophe using me as an excuse."

“Kyle is my friend. If I don't want him dating Christophe, it's because he's not good for Kyle. "

"According to you, no one is good for Kyle."

"Because they aren’t his soulmate."

“Do you realize that Kyle doesn't want his soulmate? That even you could be the one for him."

"Don’t say that." Stan blushed and stared at the wallpaper on his right.

Kenny took another deep breath. He didn't need Stan's approval, but he knew that the moment his friends stopped tailing him the fights between them would start again. He hated the idea of going back to that situation.

"What is the real problem?" Kenny put a hand on Stan's shoulder.

“There is no problem.” His friend walked away and returned to his work. The blonde didn't leave the room, but he didn't say anything else. He just watched Stan work.

His friend was tinkering on a small electronic device, but no matter how hard he tried to assemble it and attach it to a larger piece, it escaped his hands. Kenny saw his friend grow more and more frustrated with each failed attempt, until, not caring that he wasn’t in his suit, he used his powers and hammered the piece until it was useless.

"What do you want me to say?" Stan asked, turning to his friend.

Kenny shrugged.

The ravenette sighed. “OK. There is a problem.” It took Stan a while to speak, but when he did, he did it with his eyes closed. "What if Kyle accepts me and… and then I find my soulmate?" his voice trembled. "What if he finds them and abandons me?"

Kenny shook his head. “Kyle doesn't believe in soulmates. That's not going to happen and you could… I don't know, use special lenses to prevent your eyes from shining."

“That wouldn't work,” Stan scoffed and opened his eyes. “Even if my eyes don't shine, I'm sure I’m going to feel my soulmate. Everyone in my family feels their soulmate. Besides…” Stan bit his lower lip. “I do want to find them. I do, and I don't want to do that to Kyle. Do you know how many people have abandoned him? I can't be one of those."

Kenny grimaced. He had only met one person who dumped Kyle, but from the redhead's reaction (or the lack of it), Kenny knew Kyle was used to it.

"I don't love Kyle," Stan said suddenly, gathering himself. “He is my friend and I'm worried about Christophe hurting him." Stan spoke as if trying to convince Kenny, but it seemed like he was convincing himself.

Kenny wanted to protest, to tell Stan that he was holding on to nonsense. But now that Kenny had found his partner, he finally understood the stories that everyone wrote and sang. Knowing that you would be whole and happy when you found your soulmate.

Some said that they knew their soulmate was near them before looking into their eyes. Even if most people thought they were crazy or lying, there were a few who said they also could feel when their soulmate was ill or dying. The Marshes proudly claimed they belonged to the last group, and that's why they always married their soulmate. 

Kenny didn't feel Chaos, and it had taken him a lot to realize that Chaos was his, but Kenny's situation was very special. It's quite difficult to realize you are in front of your soulmate when he’s trying to kill you.

"So won't you tell him that you love him?"

"I don't!"

Kenny rolled his eyes. "Whatever, I'm telling him I'm Mysterion."

"No, you can't!" Stan looked at Kenny as if he had told him he was going to break his favorite toy. "Please, not yet."

Kenny tilted his left eyebrow.

"I don't like Christophe. I'm being serious, he's… not good. Kyle's gonna see it soon." Stan sounded pained.

The blonde sighed. It felt like he was choosing one of his friends over the other, but he ended up nodding. The truth was that he needed an excuse not to face Kyle. He was still worried, wondering if Kyle would get mad. 

"OK. I'll wait a little more. But you have to give Kyle a break. Stop nagging him, and ask yourself if someone is ever going to be as important to you as Kyle is."

Stan shook his head. "I'm telling you…"

"I have a soulmate." Kenny interrupted, "and I'm pretty sure I'll never choose him over you."

Even if last night he felt his life was going to be complete once Chaos and he were together, he also knew he'd fight Chaos if he ever was a real threat to his friends. Kyle’s philosophy wasn't entirely wrong, he could choose.

Stan frowned. "That's not the same. Your soulmate is… him."

"And what makes you think your soulmate is gonna be perfect?" Kenny frowned, slightly offended. Stan looked at him speechless.

  
  


A few minutes later, Kenny came into the living room and sat next to Kyle to watch the TV. His ginger friend was zapping, but soon both decided on watching some horror movie and a quarter an hour later Stan joined them. When he asked what was the movie about, both shushed him.

The three had their eyes glued to the TV, so engrossed by the story, that they groaned frustrated when the movie was cut out for commercials.

"Why are we watching cable? Don't we have Netflix?" Stan protested.

"Nope, Shelly changed her password." Answered Kyle standing up from the couch, commercials always made him want to make popcorn.

Stan groaned. "Why?! That hag!! She said I could use her account if I fixed his garage door. She promised me a year."

"We got one week." Informed Kyle on his way to the kitchen. "I don't know why you believed her, she always tricks you."

Kenny chuckled.

Stan pouted. "But she hasn't been that bad since she married. Also, I told her Kenny was living with us now and she loves him!" Shelly didn't love Kenny, she only put up with him a little more than she put up with Stan and Kyle.

"Not as much as she loves making you suffer," Kyle yelled from the kitchen. 

  
  


The week went faster than Kenny wanted it to be, and what he thought it should have been Wednesday, was Friday afternoon. A dull afternoon in which he had no other thing to do than locking himself in his room to sharpen his knives and upgrade his gear while listening to music.

There were two reasons why Kenny didn't want time to pass. First of all because each passing day made Chaos' promise that “they would meet soon" a lie. Kenny could understand that Chaos didn't want to meet so often to decrease the chances of being discovered, but Chaos wasn't exactly being careful.

During the week several people saw the villain in several parts of the city, trespassing, and stealing. In his latest heist, he ran into Mint Berry Crunch and Captain Diabetes and the pair nearly captured him. That annoyed Kenny because he wasn't made to wait. No one had ever made him wait before. 

Which brought him to the second reason why he was dreading the end of the week. Kenny was supposed to call Butters, ask him out, and scan his eyes, but every time he thought about doing it he felt guilty. When Stan handed him the device, he would have no more excuses for not calling the scientist.

_ Why was he doing this?  _ Oh yeah, because he didn't want to keep waiting for Chaos. Kenny grunted and quickened his work. As soon as he finished with his last knife, he would go on to clean and grease his hook.

Suddenly his intercom began to ring and when he saw that it was The Coon calling him he rolled his eyes. "What do you want?" he said as soon as he answered.

"Hello to you too, asshole."

"What do you want?" he repeated.

The Coon snorted. "We have to meet. I have information for you. "

"On?"

"Is top secret information."

"This is a private and encrypted line."

"This is a Freedom Pals' line." The Coon growled as if he was sick of explaining why nothing related to Freedom Pals was safe now.

"It's about what you were looking for the last time we met. I need the help of someone who knows what he's doing and doesn't screw it up for a change."

Kenny narrowed his eyes. The Coon going straight to the compliments meant he was planning something and he really needed Mysterion's help. "Where and when?"

"In the parking lot of the CC laboratories, at 8 pm."

“Okay, I'll see you there. But no tricks."

The Coon snorted again. "Don't keep me waiting." He hung up.

Mysterion wasn't going to leave The Coon stranded, but he wasn't a fool either and he wasn't going to show up alone. So, at 8 o'clock he arrived at the parking lot with Toolshed. They didn’t include Kite because that morning he told them that he would be home late. Which was OK, because it allowed Kenny to go out without having to worry about making up any excuses.

Not two minutes passed when The Coon appeared in front of them, and he was not surprised when he saw Mysterion wasn’t alone. "Yeah, the more the merrier," he murmured sarcastically as he motioned for them to follow. 

"Where are we going?" Toolshed asked after they crossed the parking lot and ran for four blocks following the fat superhero. But The Coon didn't answer him, instead ducking down a couple of alleys until they came to a door hidden by a dumpster. "This way" he said as he opened the door.

Although the room didn’t seem to be the main secret lair of The Coon, it was quite equipped. It had a huge screen to make projections, a wall upholstered with weapons, and a small living room with a minibar. Mysterion was about to start analyzing all the details of the place when he finally noticed someone was already in the room.

"Kite! What are you doing here?" Stan exclaimed and the aforementioned, who was leaning back in one of the armchairs of the living room, sipping from a bottle of mineral water, tensed a bit before sighing and grimacing at The Coon.

"Why didn't you tell me that Toolshed would be at the meeting?"

The fat hero shrugged and looked at Mysterion. "It was not my idea."

"Sorry, I didn't think this mission would be something you wanted to be involved in,” said Kyle to Stan. 

"What mission?"

"Sit down" The Coon pointed at the loveseat in the room, Toolshed and Mysterion sat reluctantly. Then he walked over to his screen to show them something.

"We're going to infiltrate the Freedom Pals’ base to destroy the Matchmaker," Kyle replied, sitting in the armchair to their right.

"Destroy it?" Stan looked at his friend wide-eyed. "Why?"

"Damn it, Kite!" The Coon gave the redhead an angry expression, but the redhead didn't flinch.

"This is very easy to explain, I'm not going to sit back and watch your boring PowerPoint presentation again." Kyle cleared his throat to get the attention of his friends and started to explain to them why they had to destroy the matchmaker. 

Toolshed and Mysterion already knew that Tupperware tried to put a tracker on Kyle and Stan, but they still didn't know why. Kyle suspected that Tupperware decided to track him after he hacked the Freedom Pals database to find classified information about the Matchmaker.

While The Coon told them The New Kid had started to follow him after he asked questions about the Matchmaker. It was suspicious that Tupperware chose to spy on them rather than just asking what they wanted to know.

Also, everytime The Coon was about to learn something, the New Kid disappeared with all his clues. "Except for these," The Coon said while pressing play on the video that was displayed on the screen.

_ "Log S, entry 201,"  _ said a woman's voice, and immediately on the screen appeared Wendy Testaburger. The girl was wearing a pair of square pink glasses. It didn't take long for Mysterion to recognize her even though she looked substantially different from the photographs he saw of her. She had no makeup and her eyes were surrounded by dark circles.

_ “Today I met with the board of directors in charge of the project. Everyone knows that the matchmaker is not safe. Despite my best efforts, the board refuses to cancel the project. They insist that it is possible to modify the algorithm, but it isn't."  _ Wendy pursed her lips and for a brief second her eyes shone with tears that struggled to escape. 

_ “I have been expelled from the project. This is my last recording and my warning for my replacement: destroy the matchmaker before it takes another life. You may believe it is worth the risk, that destiny does not exist, but if you continue with the research you will regret it. I regret it." _

_ "Please don't let more people die." _

The screen went black, hinting that Wendy's recording had just ended.

Mysterion kept looking at the screen, the information wasn't new to him. And it seemed Toolshed was about to protest, saying that Wendy's claims weren't enough to justify going against Freedom Pals' orders and destroying the Matchmaker, when The Coon tapped on another file and a new video started.

This time Wendy had his hair up in a ponytail and she had some makeup on, but it was ruined by the sweat running on her forehead and the blood spilling from her mouth. She was smiling tho. It was difficult to identify the place she was recording in but it seemed she was hiding under some desk or table in a dark room.

_ "...rry I thought I'll be able to make it on my own."  _ The beginning of the video was cut out, but Mysterion assumed she was apologizing.  _ "I managed to delete most of the research but they have the matchmaker and it is still working."  _ She made a pained face but didn't let the pain distract her for more than one second.  _ "They know Chaos have found a way to use the algorithm to wipe out half of the population, but they still refuse to destroy it." _

Wendy heard a sound and steadied his breathing. _ "They believe Freedom Pals will be able to protect it, but even if they could it's not worth the risk,"  _ continued with a hushed tone.  _ "As soon as it is within your reach you have to destroy it." _

Then a loud bang was heard, like a shoot, and Wendy gave a last glance at the camera. _ "I…"  _ and the video was cut. This time, the screen turning black gave to the watchers an ominous feeling.

"That is the last heard of her," said The Coon, breaking the silence with an almost solemn tone. It didn’t go unnoticed for Mysterion that The Coon was looking at the screen as if waiting for it to start playing a continuation of the video. There was a longing in his eyes.

"None of his co-workers wanted to talk about it, but it seems that Wendy warned everyone about the matchmaker failures before she was kicked off the team," Kyle said. "We don't know what was happening in the second video, but Wendy disappeared without a trace and right after that the Matchmaker was placed under the protection of Freedom Pals."

"That means…" Toolshed bit his lower lip. "Chaos wants the matchmaker because it is a weapon with the potential to destroy half the world's population and not for political reasons."

Kyle nodded. “That's right, Tupperware lied to us. The government put the matchmaker in our hand so that we take care of Chaos and then they'll continue with the investigation. Maybe they know how Chaos is going to use the matchmaker and they are planning to use it themselves."

"How do you know that Tupperware knows about this?" Mysterion asked, still trusting his leader.

"I stole this video from the Freedom Pals servers," The Coon replied. "It is obvious that he knows this. He's willing to risk half of the population instead of doing what is right and destroy the threat. The world doesn't need more weapons of mass destruction."

Mysterion narrowed his eyes. The Coon wasn't the type of superhero who got involved in something just because it was morally wrong. He was in favor of weapons of any kind, as long as they were in his hands. He could be trying to make Tupperware look bad to replace him as their leader.

"And why were you so interested in looking for the matchmaker's information?"

The Coon pretended to be offended, and seemed to want to make up some excuse but ended up sighing. “Okay, I wanted Tupperware to let me use the matchmaker and find my soulmate. I didn't care about any of this, but after finding out what could happen if Chaos gets the matchmaker, I agree with Wendy, we have to destroy it. What kind of hero would I be if I didn't do anything about it? "

"Yourself," answered Toolshed and Human Kite without hesitation, and The Coon gave them a death glare.

“I don't know about you, but 50% of the population, means that I have a 50% probability of dying and I don't want to die. " The Coon continued speaking.

Toolshed took a deep breath. "Okay, do you know where Tupperware has the Matchmaker stored in?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while, but I tried to make a long chapter for you as compensation. I hope you liked it, I'm writing as much as I can now that my writer's block is gone =D. Love y'all cute souls.


	8. The trap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heroes learn more about The Matchmaker.

Usually, Mysterion wouldn’t follow any of The Coon’s plans, but he had to agree to the whole 'destroying The Matchmaker’ mission after Human Kite told him he was going to carry on with it no matter what they say.

The plan, roughly, involved waiting until midnight to infiltrate the base, destroy The Matchmaker, and get out of there before anyone found out they were anywhere near. But, despite being simple, the plan was risky.

While making their way into the base, Mysterion convinced himself that this was worth it. Even if The Matchmaker didn't end up being a weapon of mass destruction, Chaos wanted it to do something evil, and he had to stop him because the villain was his responsibility now.

The four got into the base and crossed the corridors carefully. They knew exactly how to avoid traps, yet The Coon had told them Tupperware installed new ones.

After Kite and Toolshed hacked the vault where The Matchmaker was stored, Mysterion scanned the room and waited for Kyle to conjure a shield around him before getting in and stepping on the recently deactivated traps.

Usually, that was Mysterion’s job. Since he couldn’t die, he would always be the first one to venture into an unknown place.

Most of the time the traps were successfully deactivated. If they weren’t, Kite’s shield and Mysterion’s reflexes saved him. However, Kenny could recall a few times where he ended up mortally wounded, or he just exploded, but it was very rare for that to happen. Most of the time he died on a mission, he did so saving his teammates.

Mysterion made a sign to his friends to get inside and soon the four were surrounding The Matchmaker.

Now that Kenny was in front of the small device, he remembered the first time he saw it and the disbelief he experienced. It was funny that now he had already kissed Chaos.

Mysterion glanced at his companions, wondering if they would let him use The Matchmaker to find out Chaos’ identity before destroying it.

Toolshed wouldn’t oppose and he was sure after an explanation neither would Kite nor The Coon. But since he wouldn’t reveal his true identity to The Coon of all people, he stayed silent.

Toolshed eyes were shining like the last time he was in front of The Matchmaker. No matter what they had heard, Stan still wanted a shortcut to find his soulmate.

Kite still seemed to hate the device, his mouth distorted in disgust as if the sole existence of The Matchmaker was an offense to him. While The Coon had a smile Kenny hadn't seen in him before.

“Step back,” said Kyle. His eyes glowing, about to shoot rays.

Toolshed and Mysterion obeyed, but The Coon put his body between the redhead and The Matchmaker. “Stop,” he ordered.

Kenny would like to say he was surprised, but he wasn’t. He was expecting funny business from The Coon since the beginning.

“What are you doing?” Kyle tried to push away the animal-themed hero, but he took The Matchmaker before any of the other heroes had time to move.

“You can’t destroy it yet,” said The Coon pressing the device to his chest while looking in every direction.

“What are you doing?” The other three looked at him suspiciously.

“It’s... It’s…” The Coon kept searching for something in the room. “It’s dangerous to destroy it here. We have to… to take it outside. Blow it up in someplace far away from the city.”

“Why?,” asked Kenny while Kyle muttered a bitter, “I knew you wouldn't have the balls to destroy it.”

“You don’t know shit, Kike!” The Coon protested. Then he opened and closed his mouth like he was unsure of what to say. "We just can't destroy it yet! Not inside the base. We have to take it outside. It is not safe to do it here."

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Kenny hated, really hated The Coon.

"Because… I forgot about it."

"Is he for real?" Asked Kyle rolling his eyes.

“Give us The Matchmaker,” said Toolshed, trying to be the voice of reason there. If they start a fight now, the rest of the team will find them, and it will be hella difficult to explain what they were doing there.

The Coon sighed, relaxing his body in a notorious sign of defeat. "Listen, guys, the truth is…" He started. However, they didn't hear what the truth was because Kyle ordered them to duck before they heard the sound of a knife cutting the air.

Mysterion and Toolshed took cover behind Human Kite, who had summoned his shield while looking for the source of the sound. Soon they realized that it wasn’t a knife but a scissor and that Calamity Heidi and Bandita Sally were standing at the vault door.

“I’m sorry we’re late hun,” said Heidi to The Coon, clearly not feeling sorry.

"What took you so long?" Complained The Coon while running to the newcomer's encounter. "They were about to beat me up!"

“Don't be a bitch,” said Heidi, frowning. "You are lucky I agreed to help you."

"What's the meaning of this?" Kite asked The Coon while the mentioned took his place at Heidi's side. "Are you? Are you working with Chaos?!"

"Are you retarded?" The Coon rolled his eyes and both girls in the room laughed.

"Oh! Poor heroes, didn't think one of them could betray them?" Heidi smiled. "We've been having trouble with Tupperware's security, if not for your help, getting inside would have taken us longer."

Mysterion had always believed The Coon wasn't worthy to be part of Freedom Pals, The Coon was an attention seeker rather than a hero, but Mysterion never imagined he would see the moment The Coon betrayed them.

"Anyway, thank you for your assistance and see you later losers." After saying that, Heidi pressed the buttons in the vault's door, activating the alarms and the defense mechanism inside the room.

Immediately the walls opened up to show cannons that fired beams at the three superheroes. They cursed and ran to exit before they got trapped inside. Mysterion, being the fastest, was the first one to exit, followed by Toolshed. Unfortunately, Human Kite didn't run fast enough and got trapped in the vault.

“Go after them!” Stan urged Kenny, while he was trying to help Kyle.

  
  


Heidi wasn’t a strong villain, but she was smart and when she was fighting alongside Sally, she could be a difficult one to beat. However, Mysterion was motivated and quickly left both girls out of combat.

Mysterion followed The Coon until they got out of the base. He was calling The Coon to stop, but the other didn’t listen, so he had no other choice than to tackle him. Both rolled on the ground, The Matchmaker sliding away from them.

“Was this your plan from the beginning?” asked Mysterion while wrestling with the other. “You wanted our help to steal The Matchmaker. Since when have you been working for Chaos?”

“I’m not working for that little shit!” The Coon hit Mysterion in the nose with a strength Kenny didn’t know he possessed. While The Coon was tough, he wasn’t very strong nor fast, yet now he was fighting Mysterion like they were on the same level.

Predictably, after a few minutes, Mysterion overpowered The Coon and was about to win when an electric bolt hit his chest, sending him flying away from The Coon.

The hero groaned and stood up to see Chaos next to The Coon. The blast was powerful, but it didn’t hurt as much as it usually had thanks to the upgrades he made to his suit and gear that morning.

For the first time in all the years they had been fighting one against the other, Chaos didn’t greet Mysterion as soon as he saw him. Also, he didn’t gloat because he hit him square in the chest, he had his eyes placed in The Matchmaker, and it seemed nothing else was more important to him than it.

Nonetheless, before Chaos got a hold of the device, The Coon regained enough strength to grab it. “You can’t have it yet.”

Chaos frowned for a second, but then smiled like he remembered a joke no one else knew. “Coon, be a good pet, and give The Matchmaker to me now,” said reaching out his hand.

The Coon took another step back and almost lost his balance. He was quite injured and it was clear that the villain could snatch the device from him without any problems.

Mysterion had only seen The Coon bristle when arguing with Kyle, and he assumed Chaos had never seen him doing it because, as soon as the villain saw The Coon’s ears back and flat against his head, he smiled and murmured a soft “you’re cute.”

“Fuck you!” The Coon growled, his cheeks getting slightly red, and tried to look brave even though he couldn’t stand. “You’ll not have it until you fill your part of the deal.”

They held their gaze until Chaos let out a sigh. “OK, OK, you win. Come with me then.”

Kenny frowned. The Coon had used and betrayed them, and now Chaos wasn’t even looking at him, he was calling The Coon pet and cute. _ Was he fucking blind? _

“You’re not taking The Matchmaker.” Mysterion got in their path.

“Mysterion!” said Chaos chipperly, at last diverting his attention from The Coon. “I don’t want to fight you today. Could you please let us go?”

There he was smiling, being a dork, and making Kenny remember their first kiss. “Sorry, can’t do,” said Mysterion, smirking back. He couldn’t help it. What had once struck him as an irritating attitude from the villain, now it seemed adorable.

Chaos got a little bewildered when he saw Mysterion’s expression but promptly regained his composure. “For the record, I said please,” murmured before attacking Mysterion with a new blast. The Coon only looked at them because he was too injured to flee.

  
  


It wasn’t his intention, but Mysterion couldn’t fight seriously. They were fighting hand to hand and, of the three opportunities he had to hurt the villain, he had only landed one weak blow. And the other noticed it.

Chaos took two jumps away from Mysterion, but instead of preparing his next attack, he brought a fist up to his mouth as if trying to figure out a complicated problem.

When Chaos finally finished deliberating with himself, he lunged at Mysterion, but to Mysterion’s surprise, he didn’t attack him seriously.

The following villain’s blows and Mysterion’s responses to them looked staged more than an actual fight.

“What are you doing?” Chaos asked, genuinely curious, as he deliberately gave Mysterion an opening and saw that he didn’t take it.

Mysterion smiled at him again. What could he say? ‘I’m enjoying my time with my soulmate’. “I won’t let you take The Matchmaker, but since you said please, I could let you go.”

“Oh... wow, that’s very generous. But no, sorry. I need it.” Chaos really seemed at odds with having to refuse.

Kenny took advantage of Chaos’ dilemma to make him trip and then grab him by the waist in a subtle way to help him regain his balance. For a moment, their faces were close for a few inches.

“You could forget about your plans. Now that you have... you know, who to disappear with,” Mysterion suggested, succumbing to his desire to divert the villain from the wrong path.

Chaos was astonished by Mysterion’s behavior. “What-wo..the..are you…”

Kenny chuckled, seeing the other flustered and confused was something he could get used to.

The villain took a step back and remembered he was supposed to be in the middle of a fight. “Would you let me get away?” asked, trying to look as nonchalant as Mysterion but failing miserably.

The hero nodded, still smiling.

“What about the rest of the heroes?”

“I could convince them.”

“And what should I do in return? Become a model citizen? Use my powers to heat the houses of the needy in winter?” asked ironically.

“If that makes you happy.”

“What is going to make me happy is finishing what I started.”

“Murder millions of people?”

“Murder? Who said that?” Chaos denied and twisted his mouth as if the idea had offended him. “I could use The Matchmaker to do that, but… that’s tacky and uncreative. Do you really think I’m that ordinary?”

After saying that, Chaos threw lightning on the ground to lift the cement and distract Mysterion long enough for the finally recovered Coon to take part in the fight.

The Coon made a shallow cut in Mysterion’s side, and the slight burning of the wound forced Mysterion to take the battle seriously. He was getting into position when the sound of a tremor rumbled and immediately a crack opened under him and his foes.

  
  


Toolshed was standing in the place where the rift was born. His shirt and gloves were stained with blood and he looked quite angry. “You fuckers!” After saying that, he dug another crack in the ground.

Kenny had never seen his friend summoning an attack that strong, however, the surprise didn’t stop him from remembering he had to get The Matchmaker back. With a quick movement, he snatched the device from The Coon and gave him a kick that knocked him next to Chaos.

Chaos grunted in frustration and tried to chase after Mysterion, but a pair of screwdrivers tossed in his direction forced him to retreat and use his powers to create a magnetic field to protect himself and The Coon, who had crawled behind him.

In response to his action, Toolshed released a threat to the air. Graphically describing how he was going to gouge the eyes of Chaos and The Coon when he broke the magnetic field.

Kenny noticed that Marsh was moving too quickly to be hurt, which meant that the blood on his shirt wasn’t his. Not seeing Human Kite around and noticing his friend’s obvious anger. It wasn’t hard to imagine that the blood on Stan’s shirt was Kyle’s.

  
  


After a whole minute under Toolshed’s attack, Chaos defenses failed for a second, allowing a screwdriver to sink into his shoulder. The villain screamed as spurts of blood came out of the wound and Stan smiled at his small victory. The ravenette was actually planning to kill Chaos.

Mysterion’s hand trembled. Unsure if he should do something to protect his soulmate or stay put. “Toolshed stop!” he asked his friend as his fingers traveled across the handle of his knife, not daring to pull it out. "You are going to kill them."

But his friend didn’t reply.

  
  


Mysterion released an audible curse as Chaos’s protection subdued to Stan’s overwhelming force. The villain had to throw himself to the ground to avoid being seriously injured, and Stan wasted no time throwing a screwdriver straight into his face. Chaos closed his eyes, knowing there was nothing he could do to save himself.

Kenny couldn’t help it. His instincts kicked in before his brain could process the consequences of his actions, and he threw one of his knives to deflect Toolshed’s attack, saving Chaos.

Toolshed was about to ask Mysterion what he was doing when they heard Chaos’ airship flying over them. Then, General Disarray peaked his face and body from the airship’s side and threw a basket to rescue the villain and the ex-superhero.

Chaos and The Coon hopped onto the basket, and the aircraft rose and moved away without the superheroes being able to stop them.

“What the fuck was that?” Toolshed asked Mysterion as soon as Chaos was out of his reach, making the ground tremble slightly.

“Calm down! You were about to kill them! Did you want me to let you become a murderer?” Mysterion waved his hands to appease his partner.

“They hurt Kite! And you let them go!”

“Kite, where is he? What happened?”

“He’s injured. It took me a long time to get him out of the vault, ” Stan’s anger was replaced with anguish, now that he remembered Kyle was injured his priority was to go back to him rather than to get revenge.

Both ran back to the base.

Mysterion said nothing as he followed the other, imagining the worst. But soon feeling relieved when he ran into Human Kite. He was in the middle of the base main hallway, securing the still unconscious Heidi and Sally.

Kyle had a large and deep wound in his right arm, but it was already healing thanks to Stan’s healing powers and Kyle’s alien nature that allowed him to heal faster than humans.

Human Kite had a few other injuries to his face, neck, and abdomen. Whatever security system Tupperware installed, Mysterion now understood why The Coon needed his help to steal The Matchmaker.

Stan went straight to reprimand the redhead because he had not stayed resting where he left him, while Kyle assured him he was already recovering. That was nothing.

The post-battle peace atmosphere that existed between them faded when Kyle (seeing that Kenny had The Matchmaker in his hands) asked if they had stopped The Coon. Stan, grunting, explained everything that happened, oddly omitting the part when Mysterion helped Chaos.

Mysterion didn’t have time to feel guilty because at that moment a breeze of cold air enveloped him and his entire body froze. Toolshed and Human Kite gasp told him they couldn’t move either.

He was familiar with the icy feeling and it didn’t take him long to discover that Wonder Tweek used his powers to immobilize him. Tupperware and The New Kid were with him.

He knew they were pretty screwed up when Tupperware stepped forward and snatched The Matchmaker from his hands while ordering the others to take them to the interrogation rooms.

  
  


While he was no stranger to the interrogation room, it looked slightly different when he was the one handcuffed to the chair and interrogated instead of being in charge of asking the questions.

He wasn’t going to spend a lot of time contemplating the differences, tho. Fortunately for Tupperware, he was going to tell him everything that had happened. And so he did. Clasping his hands, he told Tupperware everything The Coon had told them and how easy it was for them to believe him given the suspicions they had.

Looking the way Tupperware nodded at his words, Mysterion imagined that his tale fit perfectly with what Stan and Kyle had also said.

However, when Mysterion tried to get answers about what Tupperware was up to. Tupperware countered by asking why Mysterion failed to explain his reasons for being interested in The Matchmaker.

Kenny repeated the lie he had been telling from the beginning. ‘They had already let Chaos free for a long time and someone needed to put him behind bars. He assumed The Matchmaker could give him a clue on what Chaos was up to.’

After a few minutes, Tupperware was satisfied enough with his responses to stop the interrogation and leave him alone for a moment.

Mysterion fiddled with his wrists against the handcuffs, wondering when he could get out, how Kyle’s wounds were, and how Chaos was. As far as he knew Chaos was human and no one around him had healing powers. So the injury from Stan’s screwdriver would take a long time to heal.

His mouth twisted and, with a grunt, he dropped his face to the tabletop. He couldn’t believe he was more worried about Chaos than about his current situation, not to mention that Stan was going to kill him when they were finally alone.

The door to the room opened again and Super Craig stepped in the room, the hero dressed in blue did not seem happy to be there, in charge of Mysterion.

“Come with me,” he said with a flat tone and Kenny obeyed him without saying a word. “I could have expected it from Toolshed and Human Kite, but from you. Is it possible to be stupid enough to believe The Coon?” Craig commented just as they stopped in front of the Freedom Pals meeting place.

  
  


When Mysterion entered the room, he saw Human Kite and Tupperware were already there. His friend had a bandage on his arm and had some adhesive bands to close the wounds on his face.

Shortly after, Toolshed arrived escorted by Wonder Tweek and immediately went to sit next to Kyle to ask how he was feeling. The redhead smiled while telling him he was still fine. However, Kenny could see that Kyle was paler than normal and his lips were a bit dry.

  
  


Tupperware wasn’t happy with them, but he wasn’t planning to re-handcuff them and send them to a cell. Instead, he took a deep breath and confessed that he might be a little to blame for what happened, even tho Kenny, Stan, and Kyle were pretty stupid too.

Trust was what held his group together and he had failed them. That’s why now he was going to answer all their questions.

  
  


The truth was that Tupperware had been in charge of the security of the Matchmaker for weeks before he asked for the rest of the team's help. In fact, in the beginning, Tupperware was confident that Chaos would never get the device because Freedom Pals’ security system was impenetrable, however, time proved otherwise.

The first time Chaos tried to steal The Matchmaker, he almost succeeded because the Freedom Pals’ system had a vulnerability that Tupperware had never considered. The system could be hacked by any member of Freedom Pals using his team ID.

After Chaos’ first attempt of stealing, Tupperware discovered that the one who violated their security was a member of Freedom Pals. That was quite frustrating. Especially since the identity of the team member who assisted Chaos was impossible to decipher as he bounced his identification signal to the communication devices of all team members, making everyone a suspect.

Knowing that he could no longer trust any of his allies, Tupperware decided to contact the New Kid for help. The meeting in which their leader entrusted them with the protection of the Matchmaker had no other purpose than to create an opportunity for Dr. Timothy to read their minds and find the traitor. Sadly he failed.

Mysterion, Human Kite, Toolshed, and The Coon were suspect because they were unusually interested in The Matchmaker, yet they weren’t the only ones. Mosquito and Fast Pass were also on his suspect list.

In the end, the traitor turned out to be the most obvious person among them all.

With a grunt, Kyle said that it was impossible for Dr. Timothy to discover the Coon because he had a split personality. While Mysterion said that, from their conversation, Chaos must have something The Coon wanted and it was very likely that their alliance was temporary.

When they returned to the subject of the video where Wendy said that Chaos intended to kill half the population, and Kite demanded vehemently that The Matchmaker should be destroyed, Tupperware shook his head and told them it was impossible.

Mysterion bit his tongue not to reveal that, in fact, Chaos confessed that he knew a way to assassinate half the population using the device, but he considered the idea beneath him.

“So, is it a lie that The Matchmaker kills people?” asked Stan.

“No, that is not a lie. But there is no way that Chaos can kill half the population without us being able to stop him. It is logistically impossible. “

“Why?”

After the question, Tupperware had no choice but to pull out a folder with various papers and photos and started explaining the origin of the Matchmaker and the problems that her developer had faced.

  
  


Wendy was a smart girl who had come up with a soulmate theory since she was in high school, and over the years her idea went from nonsense to solid possibility.

However smart she was, there were things Wendy was unable to do on her own, like creating the technology to map the eyes of her test subjects or predicting that those same subjects would die months, weeks, or even days before using The Matchmaker.

The first deaths were considered coincidences, unfortunate accidents. But later it was clear her project was the cause of the deaths.

Tupperware told them that one of the subjects decided that he couldn’t wait for the team of scientists to reunite him with his soulmate and planned a date with her in a part of the city that he did not fully know.

The excitement and happiness of seeing his predestined person, waiting for him in the cafe across the street, made him throw himself onto the road without noticing that a car was approaching. He died instantly.

The next death occurred two days later, the soulmate of one of the test subjects refused to meet her. When the subject discovered her soulmate was married to a man with whom she had two children, one of them on the way; the test subject committed suicide.

Another subject, whose soulmate had also refused to meet immediately, raided the home of his soulmate. It turned out that his soulmate didn’t dare to meet up right away, but she did have a gun and she shot him by mistake.

The fourth loss involved a subject who hated the idea of his soul mate being of the same sex and killed both of them as soon as their eyes sparkled.

One woman also committed suicide upon discovering that her soul mate had died the previous year. While the only couple that seemed to have a happy ending, they died in a diving accident a month later.

Wendy couldn’t believe that her invention brought so many misfortunes and the only answer she found to its failure was fate. Apparently, Wendy’s invention made all those people meet before their time and put them in places and positions they would never be if she hadn’t forced them to meet.

When Wendy decided that her invention was a failure and that the project had to stop, her superiors removed her from the laboratory and forced everyone to cut off all contact with her. They believed there was a way to fix the algorithm and that Wendy had just given up.

After that, the scientist disappeared.

“For Chaos to use the Matchmaker as a weapon of mass destruction, he would have to scan everyone’s eyes, have each of them meet their soulmate, and wait for everyone to die for random reasons.” Tupperware stroked his temples. “Chaos usually does nonsensical things, but that would be nonsense and impossible to execute.”

  
  


Kenny listened attentively to the stories and it was just at that moment that he finally understood why Chaos didn’t tell him they were soulmates. He said he didn't want to hurt him.

Chaos had discovered the existence of Kenny thanks to the Matchmaker, which meant they were destined to have a tragic end. The villain most likely believed that he could prevent something from happening to them by not telling Kenny that they were soulmates.

Unfortunately, Kenny already knew. Though, he didn’t care much about him being the one to die. But what would he do if Chaos died?

Mysterion glanced at his two companions. Kyle looked mortified, probably also realizing that Kenny was in greater danger than he imagined. While Stan stared back at Mysterion. He couldn’t pinpoint what his friend was thinking.

In the end, Tupperware let them go, not without first telling them that, albeit unintentionally, they had betrayed the team and that they would be discharged until he said otherwise.

If someone on the team saw them, they had permission to detain them for acting as vigilantes without the government's approval.

That was bullshit, but Mysterion could work with that. Sure, it would be torture not to be able to go out on patrol, but he had been enduring that for a month. Also, if it became necessary, he knew how to move across the city without being discovered.

He was not worried about that. It wasn’t even his biggest problem. Now more than ever, Mysterion kept wondering if Chaos was OK.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for your comments and kudos, you made me smile. It's such a nice feeling to know that you're enjoying the story as much as I am. I hope you liked the chapter and let me know what you think.
> 
> Kissus beautiful souls.


End file.
